Two men were found dead in New York City’s Central Park in the span of 24 hours, authorities said.
A park worker found a man’s body estimated to be about 30 years old, “wearing pants and shoes, but no shirt, floating in Swan Lake” pond near East 59th Street and Fifth Avenue Wednesday morning, NBC New York reported.
CBS New York reports that the man’s body appeared to be floating in the water for about a week or two, and police have identified the body from an ID in the man’s pocket but are waiting to release the man’s identity until it is confirmed.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said the body was submerged in the water for so long due to “wildlife issues” that kept his body from being found sooner and that it sustained “some eye damage from some turtles or other wildlife.” Otherwise, the body had not decomposed very much and did not look like it had sustained trauma.
The discovery of the body comes less than 24 hours after another body was found in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir Tuesday afternoon near Central Park West and 90th Street.
The man’s naked body was estimated to be in his 20s or 30s and did not appear to have undergone any trauma. The body was believed to have been in the water for at least a month because it was badly decomposed.
Police say that they do not suspect the bodies were connected to any crime, and a medical examiner will perform autopsies to determine the causes of death.
Boyce said a body had not been found in Central Park’s waters since 2015.