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[UPDATE] Gruesome Mystery: <strike>Child's</strike> Foot Found On Front Lawn In Queens
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 7, 2011
Modified Nov 7, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 7, 2011
Modified Nov 7, 2011
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Good morning, and yes, this headline is accurate: a child's foot was found in Queens. [UPDATE BELOW] Horrible, right? This gruesome discovery was made in Rosedale, a suburban neighborhood in the southern part of the borough, around 4:30 p.m. yesterday when area man Paul Lawrence was taking out the trash. The little foot was found on the grass beside the garbage cans.
"It looked like a piece of meat," Lawrence tells the Daily News. "It was a skinless piece of meat with bone. When we looked at it a little closer, we decided it looked like a foot." Lawrence called his neighbor, Sheldon Pouchet, to help him decide what to do. Pouchet tells the Post, "I thought it was a Halloween prop, but it wasn’t. I said, ‘Let’s let the [police] do their job and figure it out.’ If you see something like that, you don’t touch it. You call forensics."
Investigators believe the foot once belonged to a child between the ages of three and four. A woman who lives in an apartment above Lawrence tells the Post, "That’s somebody’s baby! An animal is one thing, but to find a human body part is a whole other story. It’s enough to freak me out. I live here with my 12-year-old daughter. I’m ready to move." Police brought dogs and searched the property and surrounding area, but no other body parts were found. "We really don't know what's going on," one officer tells the tabloid.
Update 10:13: a.m.: Now the Medical Examiner says it was not a human foot after all, but an animal foot. The NYPD press office had no information about what species of animal the foot belonged to, but stay tuned for more updates, when we'll no doubt learn that it was not a foot, but actually an ear, and Dennis Hopper is mixed up in this somehow.
Tagged
dismemberment
disturbing
foot
queens
rosedale
severed foot
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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