A man is being questioned in connection with the grisly discovery of a woman's body — missing a head, arms and legs — that was found in a garbage bag in a shopping cart on a busy street outside a Brooklyn store a day ago, law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case said Friday.
The sources say the man is being asked about disposing of the body but they believe he may be linked to the killing of the woman, whom sources say was a 68-year-old living in an LGBTQ shelter in the Clinton Hill area at the time of her death.
The passerby who found her early Thursday told cops he first noticed the bag on his way to a friend's house in Greenpoint and when it was still there on his way home an hour or so later, he decided to open it up, a senior NYPD official said.
The man, who was the one who called 911 about the grisly find at the corner of Atlantic and Pennsylvania avenues, just outside a construction safety gear shop next to a carpet store, told cops he passed by the area initially around 12:30 a.m. Thursday and decided to see what was in the bag on his way back around 1:40 a.m.
The bag wasn't tied up. It was only rolled down, the senior NYPD official said the man reported. He reached inside. First he felt a roll of toilet paper.
Then he opened up the bag and saw the torso. He called 911 immediately, the official said.
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The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine how the woman died.
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In the meantime, detectives are conducting canvases of surveillance cameras in the area in hopes they might see who dropped the cart at the location. The city's sanitation department has been told not to pick up any trash within a three-block radiance around the crime scene, with the NYPD working to bring in a cadaver dog to check nearby trash bags for any additional body parts.
Investigators say no potential motive is known at this time, nor have any potential suspects been identified at this early point in the probe. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
