A man whose headless body was fished from the waters near Jamaica Bay may have hanged himself nearby, police believe — with the death marking the fourth body found in the area since November, officials said Saturday.
The unidentified remains were found just before 9 p.m. Friday near 165th Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens, and a rope was found hanging from the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge about 1,000 feet away, cops said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the man died, but the “theory is that he hanged himself” and that his body dropped to the water, police said.
The medical examiner’s office will determine the cause and manner of his death.
The grisly discovery marked the fourth body washing up on the beach since November.
“This is an unusual amount of bodies in a relatively short amount of time,” said Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who represents much of The Rockaways.
“I can’t remember any other time when we saw four bodies washing up in a five-month period — especially outside the summer season,” she said. “This is extremely disconcerting, and I am sure the NYPD is conducting a full investigation to determine if there is any kind of pattern here.”
A 35-year-old who works at the nearby restaurant Vetro and identified himself as James R. said there was a large emergency response when the remains were found, including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.
“I’ve been working here for like 13 years, and I can tell it’s summertime when things like this happen, not bodies, but water rescues and kayaks tipped over,” he said. “Every single time somebody falls in the water or there’s a water rescue, a helicopter comes out. There was no helicopter yesterday, so my thing was, it’s not somebody drowning. If there’s no helicopter, it’s something else.”
