A Pittsburgh man angry his toddler daughter wouldn't go to bed knocked her unconscious and left her to die outside in single-digit temperatures, the police said.

The frozen body of Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found Sunday at an abandoned playground about a 10-minute walk from the family's home. Tiny footprints in the snow suggest she had gotten up and wandered around before she died, the police said.

Her father, William Lorenzo Page, 23, of Braddock, was arrested Wednesday on charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports and simple assault. He has been in custody since Sunday, when he was charged with sexually abusing another child shortly before Nyia died.

Page, who did not have an attorney at his arraignment yesterday morning, was jailed without bond.

Page told the police he woke up early Saturday and found the girl awake and playing near a mirror in the hallway, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday night. He said he got mad when the girl wouldn't go back to bed so he hit her so hard she hit her head and was unconscious, the complaint said.

The police said Page told them he took the girl outside wrapped in a blanket and left her, still breathing, beside railroad tracks near a bridge.

The police said a T-shirt, a pair of women's underwear and a Pittsburgh Steelers "Terrible Towel," all found in Page's basement, appeared to have been stained with dried blood.

An autopsy determined Nyia died of hypothermia, but the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide because investigators said it was unreasonable to assume the child had made it alone to the playground, which is on a wooded knoll. The toddler would have had to have climbed 17 snowy steps to get there.

Authorities could only guess how long Nyia, wearing only a sweater and a diaper, could have survived in temperatures that hovered around 2 degrees Saturday morning.

"Given her size, she would have been rendered incapacitated very quickly," Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams said yesterday. "She'd been out so long, when we found her she was frozen."

A witness saw Page enter his house Saturday morning from the direction where his daughter was found, the police said. He was back out on the street about an hour later, saying he was looking for the girl and telling the witness, "Somebody took my daughter," according to a criminal complaint.

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By RAMESH SANTANAM

The Associated Press