On Tuesday, May 7, the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced the alarming discovery of a severed human head floating in the waters near the Shellbank Basin in Jamaica Bay, close to JFK International Airport, sparking an investigation to determine its identity and any possible connection to a previous case in the area.
The gruesome find was reported around 10:10 am along Cross Bay Boulevard near 165th Avenue in the Howard Beach neighborhood. Officials said that the NYPD’s Harbor Unit was dispatched to the scene.
Authorities are currently focusing on whether the severed head is related to the case of Lukasz Mikolajewicz, a 46-year-old resident of Ozone Park. Mikolajewicz’s headless remains were discovered by a fishing couple on April 12, close to 600 yards west of the Cross Bay Bridge.
Mikolajewicz’s death has been classified as a suicide by the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. Kenny reported that security footage captured a man dressed in black clothing walking alone onto the bridge and then disappearing from view. The attire of the deceased matched that of the person seen in the footage, and a green rope tied to a metal railing was found at the location where the man was last observed.
The ongoing investigation aims to establish if the head and body discovered belong to the same individual, with authorities turning to DNA testing for confirmation.
Relatives of Mikolajewicz disclosed that he had previously attempted suicide on four occasions.