Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Long Island Doctor Found Dead in NYC Had Drugs in Her System
She was reportedly partying with an HBO producer at the time of her death.
Story posted Tuesday, Oct. 6:
Authorities are investigating the death of a Long Island dermatologist who was found in the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 4, police said.
Police responded to a call of a woman who was unconscious and unresponsive in the the doorway of the 223 West 16th St. building at 8:32 a.m.
The woman, identified as Kiersten Cerveny, 38, of Manhasset, was later pronounced dead at Lenox Health Greenwich Village. She was married with three children.
An autopsy test revealed that Cerveny had cocaine in her system at the time of her death, according to Newsday.
Although authorities are still determining the exact cause of her death.
Newsday reports there is surveillance footage of two men carrying Cerveny down the stairs.
One of the men she was with that night was identified as Emmy-nominated HBO producer Marc Johnson, 51, the New York Daily News reports. Johnson told investigators that Cerveny “turned blue” and he attempted to give her CPR before calling 911, according to the Daily News.
The doctor reportedly went to Manhattan to meet up with Johnson, a Facebook friend who is also married, the New York Post reports.
Police are now looking for James Holder, 60, who an ex-con who lives in the apartment building Cerveny was inside, according to the Daily News.
No arrests have been made. Neither men are expected to face charges, according to Pix 11.
The Daily Mail is reporting that Cerveny was doing cocaine and drinking alcohol with the two men in the apartment building.
Residents in the building told the Daily News that Cerveny has been “coming and going” for the past year.
Cerveny, formerly Rickenbach, married Dr. K. Andrew Cerveny in Dec. 2009, according to the couple’s New York Times wedding announcement.
Cerveny graduated magna cum laude from Duke and received a medical degree from Tulane, the announcement said.
A reader told Patch that she and her daughter went to see Cerveny as their doctor a few times. She said Cerveny was “sweet and kind to her patients.”
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