Inwood residents were terrified yesterday that their beloved upper Manhattan neighborhood – which they had always considered a safe and tranquil oasis in the hard city – could be harboring a killer in their beautiful park.
“I grew up in this neighborhood. I was never concerned. It was very quiet here,” said Amy Hernandez, 22, a college student.
“But now I have to look over my shoulder when I’m walking.”
Hernandez’s concern was spurred by Tuesday’s discovery of the strangled corpse of Sarah Fox near a remote running path in Inwood Hill Park.
“I used to walk in the park with my father and I loved it,” said John Jay College student Amanda Hall-Smith, 19. “Now my dad wants me to get Mace.”
The park’s more remote, narrow trails – where Fox was killed while jogging – can seem sinister, even to men.
“It’s scary for a guy to go through there,” said Dave Brooks, 59, a bartender at the Piper’s Kilt bar on Broadway, who walked in the area extensively on Monday without seeing a single soul. “It’s creepy back there, and for her to go alone is silly.”
Kathleen Toner, a 34-year-old mother of two, jogged in the park yesterday. “When I got to an isolated area my imagination started to kick in, and I started to look over my shoulder,” she said. “And it’s sad – no way to live.”
Last night, about 100 neighbors and community members held a candlelight vigil for Fox at Good Shepherd Church, across from her apartment.
“She had so much talent,” said Father Kevin Devine. “She enriched her neighborhood and fellow students at Juilliard.”
Additional reporting by Dan Mangan