NEW YORK – The partially decapitated body of a young woman was found early Saturday in a Brooklyn apartment where police also discovered a 4-year-old girl who was unharmed after her mother fled with lacerations on her head and body, according to a law enforcement official.
An ax recovered from a trash compactor at the public housing complex in the Bushwick neighborhood is part of the investigation, the official said. It’s not clear whether the ax was used in the crime.
The child’s 21-year-old mother managed to run from the apartment, leaving her daughter in a bedroom, according to the law enforcement official. She flagged down an Uber on the street.
The driver called police around 1:30 a.m. Saturday after noticing a large amount of blood on the woman.
She was in critical but stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital, police said.
When police went to the injured woman’s 8th-floor apartment at the Bushwick Houses, they found the other woman, in her 20s, partially decapitated, the official said. She had multiple stab wounds and lacerations to the head, arms and body. She also had severed fingers, police said.
Police said she was unconscious and unresponsive in the living room, where she was pronounced dead. The two women were either friends or relatives, according to police.
The child was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and observation, police said.
Police crime scene technicians checked the building’s lobby for fingerprints and other evidence Saturday morning, according to news footage. Residents came and went under a light rain as yellow police tape secured the building’s entrance.
Crime technicians carried bags of presumed evidence to police vehicles.
No arrests have been made.