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A woman’s body was discovered in a blood-filled duffel bag in Queens early Saturday morning, and law enforcement sources say the unidentified victim may have been killed by a family member.
Detectives are now investigating the gruesome find, which was made by two different local residents near a popular walking path on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills, on a section of street that cuts through a local park.
Cops Saturday said a blood trail from the bag led them to a house in a gated community less than a mile away, called Forest Hills Gardens, which has now become the center of their investigation.
Police are focusing their attention on the home, located on nearby Juno Street, and are looking into the possibility that a male relative killed the woman and dumped her body, law enforcement sources told the the New York Daily News.
No arrests have been made in the investigation, which is still ongoing.
The disturbing discovery comes as New York continues to grapple with a violent crime wave that has seen major crimes rise nearly 50 percent in the past year, and days after someone shot 10 straphangers on the subway in Sunset Park.
A woman’s body was discovered in a blood-filled duffel bag in Queens early Saturday morning, and law enforcement sources say the unidentified victim may have been killed by a family member. Pictured is the Forest Hills sidewalk where the body was found
Detectives are now investigating the gruesome find, which was made by two different local residents near a popular walking path on Metropolitan Ave. in Forest Hills, on a section of street that cuts through local Forest Park (pictured)
Pictured is home in Forest Hills Gardens, a gated community a half mile from where the body was found. A blood trail from the bag led them to a house in the private cul de sac complex, which has now become the center of cops’ investigation
DailyMail.com reached out to officers at the 102nd Precinct – the department that responded to 911 calls of residents who found the remains – Saturday to confirm these claims, but did not immediately hear back.
A local resident was the first to stumble across the grisly scene, cops said Saturday. Noticing the blood, the Good Samaritan dialed dispatchers at roughly 8:11 a.m.
Police arrived to the scene after a second call was made, according to another local, Glenn Van Nostrand, reportedly the second to come across the body.
Van Nostrand, 51, who had been walking through the park with his two hunting dogs, told the New York Post he noticed what he said was a black Bauer hockey duffel bag while headed down the busy street to his nearby home.
Van Nostrand did not think much of the discovery at first, he told the paper, but bizarre behavior from his two hound dogs spurred him to look inside.
‘They are scent hounds,’ Van Nostrand said. ‘They see the world through their noses.’
When Van Nostrand opened the bag, he found the mangled body, which he said had been packed in the bag in the fetal position.
‘To me it looked a mannequin,’ the Queens resident said. ‘It didn’t look very fleshy. It was more like a crash test dummy. I thought it was maybe some equipment being used for something. I didn’t think anything of it.’
Then, Van Nostrand said, he noticed black, ankle-length jeans, a belt and a woman’s waist, and came to the realization it was real body, eventually noticing blood on the other side of the bag after having opened it.
‘I thought, “Oh my goodness,” and called police,’ said Van Nostrand, who added that he told dispatchers who answered his call, ‘There’s a body in this bag.’
Van Nostrand added that ‘another gentleman’ – referring to the other tipster, who was not identified by cops – had called earlier, but cops had not come at that point.
Van Nostrand also revealed that the bag had wheels.
Cops who arrived on the scene transferred the remains Saturday morning to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The incident is the latest in a startling surge of crimes that have plagued the city since the start of the pandemic – a crime wave NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell says stems from ‘a perception among criminals that there are no consequences, even for serious crime.’
The disturbing discovery comes as New York continues to grapple with a violent crime wave that has seen major crimes rise nearly 50 percent in the past year
Last week, top cop Sewell slammed the recent trend toward policies such as bail reform, and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s stance reducing or dropping charges for many crimes.
‘[The justice system] must be fair, but it must first and foremost favor the people it was designed to safeguard and protect. When the focus on those people is lost – New Yorkers, who deserve to be free from fear – the policies fail to deliver on their most basic purpose, which is public safety,’ Sewell said during an April 6 presser.
‘Everyday New Yorkers need more help. Our police need more help. We need help from every corner of the criminal justice system, and from everyone who lives in, works in, or visits our great city,’ said Sewell.
The commissioner then called for something to be done about the ‘continuing and completely unacceptable violence in our streets.’
The surging crime wave, which according to the latest NYPD statistics shows no signs of abating, has seen an uptick in almost all major crimes this year.
For the year through April 10, major crimes are up 44 percent from the same period in 2021, with felony assault up 19 percent and robberies rising 48 percent, the latest NYPD data show.
Murders, meanwhile, have ticked down 11 percent, but other crimes are well up, with shooting incidents rising 8 percent, burglary up 31 percent, and grand larceny auto soaring 77 percent.
Most recently, a masked shooter struck further fear in New Yorkers after popping a smoke canister on a crowded train in Sunset Park Tuesday morning, before opening fire – firing 33 times – on those inside, injuring 10.
Suspect Frank James was arrested Wednesday in the Lower East Side as the sole suspect in the shooting, which took place in New York’s already crime-ravaged transit system.
The crime also comes days after suspected subway shooter Frank James (pictured being arrested on the Lower East Side Wednesday) shot 10 straphangers in Sunset Park
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has promised to clean up the city’s crime ravaged streets. So far, statistics and incidents like Tuesday’s subway shooting in Sunset Park suggest it has been largely unsuccessful
On March 23, a 14-year-old boy was punched repeatedly by a gang of attackers at a Brooklyn train station.
Also in March, a 29-year-old Asian man was beaten with a hammer in a 14th Street subway
On April 5, a commuter on a northbound 4 train got into an argument with another man who slashed him in the neck with a boxcutter.
A man had his neck slashed with a boxcutter on the subway on Tuesday morning in the latest frightening act of violence in New York City.
NYPD officials say the victim, in his forties, was traveling on a northbound 4 train when he and another man got into an argument.
New Mayor Eric Adam’s ‘holistic’ plan for combatting crime, which unveiled in February with Gov. Kathy Hochul at his side, seems to have a limited affect on the chaos.
During the February presser, Adams’ vowed to clean up the crime-ridden subway system, amid the rash of reports of slashings, assaults, and even murder, on platforms and stations across the city.
Adam’s Subway Safety Plan initiative, announced by the mayor exactly two weeks ago on February 17, deployed 1,000 additional officers, as well as teams of health workers, into the city’s intricate subterranean network to crack down on the influx of crime.
‘No more smoking. No more doing drugs. No more sleeping. No more doing barbecues on the subway system. Not more just doing whatever you want,’ Adam said at a press event announcing the plan alongside New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
‘Those days are over. Swipe your MetroCard. Ride the system. Get off at your destination.’
Source: dailymail
