By Mark Hallum
Police sources have released the identity of the murder victim found in Bayside’s Alley Pond Park on Sunday as a 16-year-old with possible gang ties.
Julio Vasquez from Jamaica was stabbed more than two dozen times before being left in the park to be found by a birdwatcher, according to NYPD, who had said the body was so severely decomposed it would require dental records to identify him.
Police originally thought Vasquez, who lived on 166th St., was a female but later corrected the report stating the victim was male.
The body was discovered in a very remote and heavily wooded part of the park known for its natural and somewhat ungroomed wetlands.
Police from the 111th Precinct responded to the bird watcher’s call at approximately 1 p.m. about an unconscious person within the vicinity of 76th Avenue and Cloverdale Road. But when EMS arrived on the scene, they pronounced the individual dead.
Although some reports said Vasquez was an MS-13 member, a police source was reluctant to ascribe the victim to a specific affiliation.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
