Foul Play Not Suspected After Bodies Found In Central Park Lakes, NYPD Say

CENTRAL PARK, NY — The two dead bodies found floating in Central Park waterways this week do not appear to be connected or criminal, NYPD Captain Peter Andrea, the commanding officer at the Central Park Precinct, said at a Wednesday night community meeting.

Both bodies showed no signs of trauma, which allowed investigators to "eliminate theories of criminality," Andrea said. As of Wednesday night Andrea could only say that the bodies were male, but could not identify those drowned or conclude how they ended up in the water. The NYPD is "very confident" that no foul play occurred in the deaths but is still investigating and looking at "every angle," Andrea said.

On Tuesday afternoon, a badly decomposed body was pulled from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis reservoir and on Wednesday morning another body was pulled from Swan Lake, a small pond in the vicinity of Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street.

Andrea said that due to the shift from cold to warm weather, it's currently the time of year when "floaters" start to get discovered, but usually not in Central Park. The discovery of two bodies in two days came as a bit of a shock to the precinct.

"I'm out there about five, six hours with the detective squad, the chiefs all come out to the park, we wrap this up, the [Medical Examiner] takes the body and they're working on it night and day." Andrea said. "This morning I come into work and I get told there's a body in Swan Lake and I'm like, 'Alright you're joking right? It's not funny.'"

The first body, found in the reservoir by Central Park Conservancy cleaners, will be hard to identify due to prolonged time in the water, Andrea said. The Medical Examiner's preliminary findings reveal the man may have been in the water as long as one month. Because the body was so badly decomposed, the Medical Examiner was unable to lift fingerprints.

Police have a tentative identification for the second body, but have not made it public because the family has not confirmed the identity, Andrea said. The body, pulled from the much-shallower Swan Lake, was not as badly decomposed and was likely in the water for a maximum of one week, Andrea said.

Photo by Michael Heiman/Getty Images