Horrified residents have uncovered a body in a suitcase behind an apartment complex in Long Island.
Suffolk County Police said officers responded to reports of suspicious activity in a wooded area beside Nassau Road in Huntington at 11:50 am on Tuesday.
A woman who gave her name as Taylor said she made the 911 call after stumbling across the gruesome scene.
‘I was taking a walk and I just, I smelled something. I saw a whole bunch of flies. I had looked over and I saw the suitcase,’ she told News12.
‘So then I called it in, I was like I’d rather be safe than sorry. This is out of the ordinary. This is not normal.’
‘I have dogs to walk at night. Like, I’m nervous,’ she added.
Huntington Station resident Flavio Ribadeneyra told the outlet he also noticed a foul smell on Tuesday morning.
‘This is unbelievable,’ he said. ‘You would never think that something like that would happen in your building or around your building!’
Another horrified local, Chris Smocer, said he came across the suitcase while driving past the area with his daughter.
‘I came over and I got out of the car and I approached it and I said “Oh my God it stinks here,” and the flies… I said, we need to call the police,’ he told NBC.
Suffolk County Police have not yet identified a suspect or motive for the murder, but they issued a statement describing the troubling scene when officers first attended.
‘Upon arriving, police found a person deceased in a suitcase next to the building,’ the department said.
‘The identity of the person and a cause of death will be determined by an autopsy to be conducted by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office.’
Forensic investigators could be seen combing through foliage where the suitcase was found throughout Tuesday.
The scene has been cordoned off with police tape as the investigation continues.
It comes months after dismembered human heads were discovered in Amityville, Long Island in March in a grisly case involving two victims and four suspects.
Four people were charged over the murder mystery, which police said at the time may have been linked to a love triangle.
Steven Brown, 44, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, Amanda Wallace, 40, and Alexis Nieves, 33, were all apprehended after human body parts were found in Babylon park.
The four were each charged with first-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence by concealing or destroying, and concealment of a human corpse.