The city’s medical examiner has ruled a homeless woman’s death a homicide after she was found dead on a hiking trail inside a Washington Heights park with a small puncture wound in her back, police said Friday.
Police identified her as Doris Perez, 41.
Officers responded to a 911 call about a person in need of medical attention near West 174th Street and Amsterdam Avenue around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday and found her unconscious and unresponsive inside Highbridge Park, according to the department. EMS workers pronounced her dead at the scene.
She was found face up on a hiking trail, police officials said. The location is near the Amsterdam Avenue side of the park, a more populated area. Police have not said whether any surveillance cameras cover that section of the trail.
Killings are rare in that part of Upper Manhattan. The 33rd Precinct, which covers the neighborhood and the park, recorded one murder last year, according to NYPD crime statistics.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
