An MTA track worker made a grim discovery Saturday morning inside a utility closet tucked into a No. 6 line subway tunnel near East Harlem, stumbling upon the body of an unidentified man who police believe had been there for days. The worker found the remains around 11 a.m., roughly 100 feet north of the 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station on the downtown side, while carrying out an ongoing project in the tunnel.
According to the New York Post, the man appeared to be in his 20s or 30s and had no obvious signs of trauma. Police reportedly do not suspect criminality in the case, and his identity has not been established.
EMS Declared Him Dead at the Scene
Police said EMS rescuers pronounced the man dead where he was found, per the same report. The Office of the City Medical Examiner is expected to determine the official cause of death, though no timeline for that determination was provided. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner handles such investigations for the city.
A source familiar with the investigation told the outlet the body appeared to have been in the closet for at least a few days before it was discovered. That detail raises questions about how long the man may have gone unnoticed in a working section of the transit system, though the source did not offer further specifics.
Details Remain Limited
Beyond the basic circumstances of the discovery, few details about the man or how he ended up in the tunnel closet have been made public. No further information has been released about his identity, and the medical examiner's findings on cause of death have not yet been disclosed.
