2008 Woodie Awards
Woman's Body Found in Riverdale Parking Lot
Christine Gianino
Issue date: 2/23/05 Section: News
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The woman was discovered by employees of a local post office near the bank that owns the parking lot. The post office employees were just arriving for work and found the body behind the trucks as they were moving them. At the time, the woman could not be identified, and all that was known about her was that she was in her late 30s or early 40s, and was either Hispanic or a light-skinned black woman. The following day, she was identified as 54-year-old Felicita Heredia of the Bronx, but the way in which she was killed is still unknown. Detectives originally believed that the woman was murdered, but more recent evidence has provided proof to the contrary.
A disturbing detail about the case is that Heredia was found only partially dressed. The way in which her clothes were torn leads to suspicions that she was either raped or dragged from the back of a car. When the workers found her in the morning, she was lying face down near a dumpster, with her pants pulled down so that one leg was completely off and the other was left around her ankle. The detectives are reviewing tapes from the surveillance cameras outside the bank in search of more clues about how and why such an event could take place in this normally quaint section of Riverdale.
The employees of the post office expressed concern and shock about the event. "It's scary-we work out here, we work the streets everyday to deliver the mail. We don't know if she was raped or what happened," said one post office worker, Lillian Torres. This same sentiment was shared by most members of the generally quiet and safe neighborhood, though it was noted that the area can become quite deserted at night, especially near the woods.
Heredia's family has been particularly stressed out about the situation, and expressed shock and grief to reporters. "Understandably... they're a little apprehensive about what the final determination is going to be, if there's any foul play involved," said Tyrone Ramsey, Heredia's nephew.
The most recent investigation has determined that Heredia suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and it is very likely that she was not murdered at all, as originally thought. In fact, she might have frozen to death on her way home from a friend's house. Heredia had been visiting her long-time friend, Laura Mercado, at her apartment on Thompson Avenue. She decided to go home around five o'clock, so Mercado called Heredia's mother to pick her up, knowing that the sickly woman have difficulty traveling by herself, despite the fact that it was only a six-block walk. However, Heredia's mother informed Mercado that her daughter was having a "good day" and was capable of walking alone. Fifteen minutes later, Mercado called again to make sure Heredia made it home safely, but she had not arrived yet, and never would.
Mercado and Heredia's family members immediately called the police and began a full-out search for the woman all over town, but she could not be found. It is still unknown how Heredia's body ended up six miles away from the apartment at a bank parking lot in Riverdale. Although the official cause of death has not yet been determined, police suspect that Heredia died of hypothermia and may have torn off her own clothes, as it is common for victims to feel extremely warm just before freezing to death.
Sources:
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/40812.htm
http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=48314
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_021705_bodyfound.html
http://www.wnbc.com/news/4207705/detail.html