Overview

• On July 6, an acquaintance found a badly decomposed 52-year-old man inside the cabin of a docked boat on Newtown Creek after he went unheard from for over a week.
• Earlier on July 7, officers discovered the decomposed body of an unidentified man along the shoreline at Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach, with no visible signs of trauma.
• Advanced decomposition in both cases suggests the individuals had been dead for days before recovery, complicating efforts to pinpoint time and cause of death.
• These latest recoveries bring to five the number of bodies found in Jamaica Bay and its tributaries since November, highlighting a recurring pattern of waterfront fatalities.
• Many of the discoveries occurred in heavily polluted or industrialized sections of the city’s waterways, prompting concerns over monitoring gaps and cleanup progress.