Overview
- An exterminator performing summer maintenance at PS/IS 113 in Glendale, Queens, called 911 after smelling a foul odor and finding possible human remains in a chimney on Tuesday.
- The New York City Police Department confirmed the discovery and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has begun forensic protocols but has not yet identified the victim or determined a cause of death.
- Parents say students complained of a rotten smell near the playground in the week before schools closed, a detail forensic sources say fits media reports that the body may have been in the vent for several weeks.
- Investigators plan interviews with school staff, maintenance workers and contractors who had been on site for recent heating and ventilation repairs to determine how the remains reached the chimney.
- PS/IS 113 serves roughly 700 to 767 preK–8 students, no students were on site during the discovery, and the NYC Department of Education has offered community supports while the investigation continues.