A woman’s body was found inside a trash can at a remote Brooklyn beach parking lot Wednesday afternoon.
The NYPD, 911 dispatchers and EMS crews converged on Plumb Beach, a sliver of shoreline off the Belt Parkway near Knapp Street in Sheepshead Bay, after the emergency call came in around 3 p.m. The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was already unconscious and unresponsive when officers arrived. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene.
Her remains had been stuffed inside a trash can on the small peninsula, which juts into the water across the Rockaway Inlet from Breezy Point, sources told ABC 7. The medical examiner’s office removed the body Wednesday night, covering it with a white sheet for transport.
Investigators at the scene were seen examining the trash can itself as they gathered evidence. The NYPD has not disclosed whether the container appeared to have been moved to the location or if the woman’s body was placed there after death.
Plumb Beach sits within Gateway National Recreation Area and draws windsurfers and kiteboarders to its exposed, often gusty shoreline. The parking lot where the body turned up serves as the main access point for visitors, though its remote location off the busy parkway leaves stretches of the area largely unpopulated during off-peak hours.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the woman’s cause and manner of death, police said. That finding could prove pivotal: investigators have not yet indicated whether they suspect homicide, suicide, an accidental death or an overdose.
No arrests had been made as of Wednesday night, and police have not named any suspects or persons of interest. The woman’s identity remained withheld pending notification of her family and formal identification by the medical examiner’s office.
The grisly discovery rattled a pocket of Brooklyn that rarely makes crime blotters. Plumb Beach, despite its isolation, functions as a recreational escape for water sports enthusiasts who prize its steady winds and unobstructed views toward the Atlantic. The parking lot where the body was found typically fills on weekend afternoons with cars topped by windsurfing boards and kite rigs.
The case now hinges on the medical examiner’s findings and any surveillance footage or witness accounts detectives can assemble from the parkway corridor. The NYPD did not immediately release additional details about the investigation.