Cops are scouring New York City for a killer on the loose after a resident stumbled across a woman’s body wrapped in a garbage bag on a busy sidewalk last week.
NYPD officers responded to a report of a suspicious package amid trash in front of on 27th Street and Third Avenue in Kips Bay on the east side of Manhattan just before 5pm on Friday.
‘EMS responded and pronounced the aided deceased at the scene,’ the department told DailyMail.com.
‘Pursuant to an ongoing investigation, it was determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner that the person discovered was a 31-year-old female who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and it was deemed a homicide on July 7, 2024.
‘There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing.’
The woman was identified by her mother as Yazmeen Williams, according to the New York Post.
‘[Officers] said, ‘Are you Yazmeen Williams’ mother?’ Yazmeen’s mother, Nicole Williams, said at her apartment building.
‘And I said, ‘Yes I’m Nicole Williams. I’m her mother.’ And they said, ‘Your daughter has been shot.’
‘And I said, ‘OK, and she’s going to be all right?’ And they said no, that she died,’ she added, breaking into tears.
‘They said she’s dead. I fainted and the officer had to pick me up off the floor.’
‘She’s my baby. We got to get justice for her. She didn’t deserve what happened to her.’
Rian Robbins, the passer-by who was unlucky enough to make the chilling discovery, said she was suspicious of the package because flies were circling it.
‘I walked by and turned around, there were flies swarming all over it. And I saw what that looked like a ribcage,’ Rian Robbins told amNewYork Metro.
They were cleaning out the building, so I was like maybe it’s some old thing they threw out.’
Robbins said the body was left lying on what appeared to be a cart. ‘It was on a rolling cart that was tied to the thing,’ Robbins said.
‘It was big and bloated like it had been in water.’
Horrified onlookers inside the lobby of a nearby building also filmed disturbing video of detectives cutting into the body bag on the street.
Ted Oehmke, who also witnessed cops slicing open the bag, gave gruesome details of what he saw to DailyMail.com.
‘There was a hole cut in the top of the bag and what looked like the top of a head,’ he said. ‘I’d like to say I was shocked but I’m not. It’s a sign of the times, that’s all.’
‘It looked like whoever did it went to a lot of trouble to make sure it was wrapped up and stuck out in the open,’ Oehmke added.
‘But I was pretty surprised to see it sitting there in the regular garbage as if sanitation was going to take it away.’
Officials said they believe the corpse had been on the street for some time because other residents had reported a stench in the area before Robbins.
NYPD officers cordoned off the area as forensic teams combed the scene.
The investigation is ongoing and no arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon.
Anyone with information should contact the NYPD or Crime Stoppers.