Authorities responded to a Queens apartment on Wednesday, Sept. 15, to find the decomposing body of a woman wrapped in trash bags while her disoriented daughter was found in the shower.
The incident reportedly happened in an apartment building on 102nd St. near 35th Avenue in North Corona.
The body of Cynthia Jones, 68, was discovered after the landlord of the building alerted the police at about 6:38 p.m on Wednesday, Sept. 15, to inform them that leaking water was coming from Jones' barricaded apartment, Daily News reported.
“I called the super because the whole ceiling fell,” a tenant of the building said. “He called the Fire Department because they wouldn’t let him in.”
After law enforcement finally forced their way into the apartment, they reportedly found the decomposing body of the victim wrapped in several black garbage bags lying on the living room floor. The woman's 45-year-old daughter was shortly found spaced out in the shower at the same apartment. The daughter reportedly appeared disoriented and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center for psychiatric observation, PIX11 reported.
The daughter allegedly told the police that her mother died of natural causes. Jones' body has been sent to the city medical examiner's office for an autopsy to determine her cause of death.
The family reportedly kept to themselves, although the mother occasionally spoke with the neighbors.
“If you saw her in the hallways she would say hello and keep going,” a neighbor said. “My heart goes out to them because that could have been me. I could have had a heart attack and died by myself. My heart hurts for her.”
Jones had been living in the apartment for several decades and had raised two daughters in the flat. The victim's other daughter reportedly got married and moved to North Carolina.
“She was here the longest,” a neighbor said. “She was here before I moved in, and I’ve been here 45 years.”
No arrests have been made in connection with the incident as of Thursday, Sept. 16.
In a similar but unrelated incident, the body of a woman named Shantabai Swarnkar, 65, a retired government school teacher, was reportedly found wrapped in a bedsheet in her house in Nainwa town of Bundi district, Rajasthan, India, on July 12.
Swarnkar's body was reportedly discovered after her neighbors complained of a foul smell emanating from the residence, Latin Times reported.
The accused, identified as Chandu alias Chandraprakash, the victim's adoptive son, was reported to be seen in the area at the time of the incident.
When the detectives questioned him, he told police that he thrashed his adoptive mother and choked her to death as he was "fed up" with her "harassing" him for money.
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