Police say they are investigating the death of an 82-year-old Brooklyn woman as a homicide after funeral home workers preparing her body for burial noticed at least one stab wound on her neck.
Myrtle McKenny was found unconscious and unresponsive at her home on Powell Street in Brownsville on Nov. 9, and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, according to the NYPD.
Her death was not believed to be suspicious and her body was taken to a city morgue, where it remained for about a month until family members could be found to claim her body, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.
Eventually, Boyce said that McKenny's family doctor signed a death certificate from the woman and her body was picked up by the Caribbean Funeral Service in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
Once there, Boyce said, an embalmer discovered the stab wound, broken ribs and facial bruising and reached out to authorities.
From there, the body was taken back to the city medical examiner's office, which ruled McKenny's death a homicide.
According to the autopsy report, McKenny had a stab wound to her neck and lacerations to the upper right part of her body; she also had blunt impact injuries to her head, torso and right upper extremity.
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The medical examiner's office said hypertension and heart disease contributed to McKenny's death, but that they weren't the cause.
McKenny's doctor declined to comment to NBC 4 New York. Boyce said it doesn't appear that he ever actually examined her body after she died.
No arrests have been made in the killing.
