A bird-watcher found something he wasn’t looking for when he stumbled upon a dead body in Queens on Sunday afternoon, cops said.
The 52-year-old man was in the woods of Alley Pond Park near 76th Avenue and Cloverdale Road just before 2 p.m. when he smelled an odd odor, according to police. Upon further investigating the area, he discovered the body of a man laying face down, clad in blue jeans and a shirt.
The dead man had no identification but appears to be in his 20’s, cops said. There were no immediate signs of trauma to the body, which showed significant decomposition, with officials initially identifying the person as a female.
The medical examiner will determine cause of death.
Some people who live in the area were alarmed by the discovery.
Ji Hee Kim, a registered nurse, says she walks the trails in Alley Pond Park most mornings with a friend. She said she’s never seen anything like the sea of police in the park or neighborhood in her 23 years living in Bayside.
“We walk around a lot here early in the morning. Now I’m scared to walk around,” Kim said.
Longtime resident Jun Zhan said the news of the body being found was jarring to him and his partner, who like to hike on the trails along Alley Pond Park.
“It’s crazy,” Zhan, 31, said. “We were just walking through there this morning, we must have passed it.”
Zhan said the neighborhood has been taken by surprise as well.
“This is a residential neighborhood,” he said. “Sometimes, on weekends, people will be barbecuing and stuff like that, but it’s usually very quiet. I can’t remember anything like this ever going on.”