Headless Body Mystery Could Be Solved 12 Years After Williamsburg Dumpster Find, NYPD Hopes

Police Hope DNA Technology Can Help ID Headless Torso Found In Williamsburg Dumpster

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Police are hoping new DNA technology will help them identify a headless human torso found in Brooklyn more than 12 years ago.

A worker discovered the body in a dumpster at the Cooper Recycling facility at 222 Maspeth Ave. on July 26, 2005, police said.

Investigators believe it had been thrown into the dumpster before it was collected from Gates and Grand avenue in Clinton Hill, said police.

Four days after the torso was discovered, police found a human skull in a garden near Stuyvesant Avenue and Decatur Street.

DNA testing confirmed that the skull belonged to a man in his late teens or early twenties who stood between five-foot-five and six-feet tall and weighed between 130 and 200 pounds, said police.

Police are now using phenotype prediction models — which use DNA to create facial images — in hopes of identifying the victim and capturing his killer.

The same technology was also used to recreate the image of a woman found dismembered in Calvert Vaux Park on March 22, 2015, said police.

Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to contact police.

Photos courtesy of the NYPD