Body Wearing 'Cement Shoes' Floats Ashore in NYC

The corpse had a Virgin Mary tattoo
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 4, 2016 8:36 AM CDT
Body Wearing 'Cement Shoes' Floats Ashore in NYC
The lower Manhattan skyline is visible from a trail overlooking Jamaica Bay (not where the body was found) on July 17, 2012, in New York.   (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Police are trying to identify the body of a man who washed ashore in New York City with his arms tied behind his back and his feet encased in concrete, the AP reports. At a news conference Tuesday in Queens, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said that the body was wrapped in plastic bags and that they're dealing with what is "obviously a homicide," per the New York Times. The body was found Monday by a student at Kingsborough Community College who was taking a morning stroll on campus along Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Authorities hope an autopsy will help determine how long the man had been in the water and how he died.

Per the Times, it's "not uncommon" for bodies to suddenly emerge from the waters of NYC, especially in the spring, when warmer weather speeds up decomposition and, hence, increases the amount of resulting gases that make corpses float to the surface. But it isn't every day that one shows up wearing what CBS New York calls "cement shoes," which the Times notes has long been said "to be a favorite of mob hit men with plenty of patience," since concrete takes a long time to dry. The victim has a large tattoo of the Virgin Mary holding a rose, which police hope will help identify him. He was wearing gray sweatpants, blue boxer shorts, and a black jacket. (More New York stories.)

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