The grim discovery of a woman's body in East Harlem earlier this week has been confirmed as Bonnie Schulman-Rice. Found under the Metro-North Railroad tracks near Park Avenue and 124th Street, Schulman-Rice was homeless and familiar to the neighborhood residents who described her as "very loving, caring young lady," according to a PIX11 News report
Initially raising suspicions due to signs of head trauma, police sources now indicate that Schulman-Rice died from a drug overdose according to details from Gothamist, bolstering the ongoing investigation into how her body ended up at the location while for now at least, no arrests have been made as detectives look to unravel both where Schulman-Rice spent her final moments and who, if anyone, may have been involved in her untimely demise.
It was a man who cleans the area who stumbled upon Schulman-Rice wrapped in a laundry bag and plastic and quickly alerted an MTA police officer to the grisly find. "She was living in the streets," a woman who knew Schulman-Rice told PIX11 News, her voice laden with the weight of witnessing too many untold hardships in the margins of the city. Although she was homeless at the time of her death, records show Schulman-Rice had an address back in 2018 on West 130th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Relatives of Schulman-Rice from Long Island have been contacted, remaining tight-lipped as they "process the news," they conveyed to Gothamist, still coming to grips with their loss and the tragic circumstances surrounding their loved one's passing while police continue to investigate.
