Tuesday, June 15, 1999
Corpse Rides Subway For Hours
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EW YORK--A passenger
seemingly asleep aboard a packed
rush-hour subway train was
actually dead, possibly for as long as five
hours, authorities said.
Police said the unidentified man, in his
40s, was on the uptown No. 1 train at least
20 stops Monday before passengers
noticed he was unresponsive and alerted
authorities.
His body was removed at the 96th
Street station in Manhattan's upper west
side.
Subway regulars expressed little
surprise at unwittingly sharing a busy train
with a corpse. The man had been sitting
upright, silent, with his eyes closed and
head bowed.
"Do you know how many people sleep
on the train during morning rush?" rider
Mario Licari said. "Unless the guy slumps
into me, I just leave him alone."
The man carried no identification -only
20 cents, a watch and a comb, police said.
It was unknown where he boarded or how
long the subway, which runs from
Manhattan's southern tip to the Bronx, had
been in service Monday morning.
Based on a preliminary examination of
the body, the man may have been dead up
to five hours before being noticed, police
said.
Police said he appeared to have died of
natural causes. An autopsy was pending.
-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222
Fax 518-442-5298