A 24-year-old woman who had gone missing before her body was found in a luxury Manhattan apartment building’s trash compactor died after falling down a garbage chute, police in New York City have concluded.
The police’s determination comes after mystery surrounded the disappearance of Jaclyn “Jackie” Elmquist, who disappeared after meeting with co-workers at a nearby restaurant on the night of 30 November. She was found on Friday in the basement trash compactor at +Art, a residential building in the city’s Chelsea district.
Posts on social media and flyers about the missing woman, who was originally from Minnesota and worked at an executive search firm, said she was at the nearby Catch Steakhouse until 11.30pm and was put in a yellow cab by her co-workers. But she didn’t make it home to Brooklyn or show up at work the following day.
Surveillance video obtained by NBC New York appeared to show the woman walking unsteadily on the sidewalk on West 28th Street about a quarter of an hour later. Elmquist’s phone location apparently showed she was just four blocks from the apartment building when her phone died.
NYPD officers said she was “unconscious and unresponsive” in the compactor, and emergency services later pronounced her dead at the scene. A preliminary investigation determined her injuries were indicative of having fallen down the garbage chute.
“No criminality is suspected at this time,” police said.
The medical examiner’s office is conducting an investigation meant to confirm exactly how Elmquist died. That investigation was pending on Monday.
