Decomposing head discovered at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel six months after matching torso was found in Idlewild Park: NYPD

Homicide detectives found what they were looking for at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel on Thursday, March 5, when they discovered the severed decomposing head of a Guyanese woman, whose torso was found at Idlewild Park a half-year earlier. The search resumed the next day along the Jamaica Bay shoreline, but the arms and legs have not been recovered, police said.

Crime scene investigators continued the search the next day, but they did not recover other body parts.Courtesy of CM Ariola’s office

Workers from the city’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) made the gruesome discovery of a woman’s skeletal remains while clearing trash from the edge of Idlewild Park near Brookville Boulevard and 149th Avenue in Rosedale on Monday, Sept. 23, 2025.

The DSNY workers were clearing trash from an area on the eastern side of the park when one of them grabbed a garbage bag and was about to toss it into the back of their truck when he caught a whiff of a foul odor emanating from inside the bag at around 7 a.m., and they called it in to the NYPD.

Sanitation workers discovered the torso of a dead woman in a trash bag at the edge of Idlewild Park in Rosedale in September, ten miles away from where the woman's head was found at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. — Sanitation workers discovered the torso of a dead woman in a trash bag at the edge of Idlewild Park in Rosedale in September, ten miles away from where the woman’s head was found at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.File photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Police from the 116th Precinct in Rosedale responded to the 911 call of possible human remains at the location and found the decomposing skeletal remains of a woman’s torso inside the trash bag.

An NYPD spokeswoman could not say what led the homicide detectives to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge where they found the skull, but she could confirm the torso and head belonged to the same woman. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is working to identify the woman and her cause of death.

“This is a deeply disturbing discovery, and I am grateful that the NYPD is working hard to bring the perpetrator of such a heinous act to justice,” Council Member Joann Ariola said. “If anyone out there has any information about this case, I urge them to come forward so those responsible can finally be held accountable for their crimes”

Anyone with information regarding this homicide investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are strictly confidential.