What a morning
Oct. 27th, 2006 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanFor what I believe is the third time in my life, I just saw a dead body in the city. Alexis and I frequently make what seems now to be a very unfunny joke that, walking dogs in the park at night as we do, we will inevitably find a dead body. I'm always looking into the river as I walk to the train, looking to see unusual ducks, or a swimming muskrat. Instead I saw a pair of pale legs in the dark water. I stopped and stared for a while, eventually convinced that I was looking at someone's idea of a halloween prank--a partially dressed mannequin dropped into the river to scare someone like me, and waste the time of emergency responders. I actually considered for a moment, getting a long stick and dragging it out of the water, to keep someone else from wasting police time.
I struggled with it a bit, and finally called 911. When I said the words "body in the river," the officer on the line repeated them, shouting to the others in the room or on the dispatch line. "Body in the river!" I tried to stammer out that I suspected it was a prank, but the action was in place and he cut me short. I took a few steps, turned back, paused, and then walked to train platform, worried that I was going to be late for work. A man with a T uniform was there; I asked if he was a T policeman or inspector, and he said no, but I told him what was going on anyway. As I was talking to him, sirens and blue lights arrived on Longwood Ave, and I realized that they were going to have to find the body/dummy which wasn't close to a street.
I resolved to be late to work and went back into the park. In seconds there were cruisers on the path, and officers with flashlights everywhere. I found the first policeman and told him "it's over here--I called 911." An EMT caught up with me and I took him to the site. A very frightened looking man (a familiar face from the park) was there, and I was saying that I thought it was a dummy, the cop shook his head and said, "this man found a note." He explained to other officers that the man had found a backpack with what appeared to be a suicide note in or on it. It wasn't until then that I realized that it wasn't a sick prank, but that I wished that it had been. Some mother's daughter is gone.
I struggled with it a bit, and finally called 911. When I said the words "body in the river," the officer on the line repeated them, shouting to the others in the room or on the dispatch line. "Body in the river!" I tried to stammer out that I suspected it was a prank, but the action was in place and he cut me short. I took a few steps, turned back, paused, and then walked to train platform, worried that I was going to be late for work. A man with a T uniform was there; I asked if he was a T policeman or inspector, and he said no, but I told him what was going on anyway. As I was talking to him, sirens and blue lights arrived on Longwood Ave, and I realized that they were going to have to find the body/dummy which wasn't close to a street.
I resolved to be late to work and went back into the park. In seconds there were cruisers on the path, and officers with flashlights everywhere. I found the first policeman and told him "it's over here--I called 911." An EMT caught up with me and I took him to the site. A very frightened looking man (a familiar face from the park) was there, and I was saying that I thought it was a dummy, the cop shook his head and said, "this man found a note." He explained to other officers that the man had found a backpack with what appeared to be a suicide note in or on it. It wasn't until then that I realized that it wasn't a sick prank, but that I wished that it had been. Some mother's daughter is gone.
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How horrible
Date: 2006-10-27 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:19 pm (UTC)I wonder what this poor woman's story is.
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Date: 2006-10-27 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:45 pm (UTC)i keep thinking that sooner or later while poking around the edges and woods and things, i'm going to find something like that. never seem to find even much in the way of ex-animals, certainly not people.
maybe for halloween you can have an urban undead :) "zombies of boston"... :) vampires of newton.
#
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Date: 2006-10-27 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 07:36 pm (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/b0st0n/4658982.html
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Date: 2006-10-27 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 07:56 pm (UTC)You found her, had courage to call 911, now her loved ones won't have to wait weeks or even longer trying to figure out what happened to her. Now she can "go home" to her family.
Sorry you had to witness all of this, hope you see a sunset this evening that makes you feel better.
I found you through the Boston post
Date: 2006-10-27 08:31 pm (UTC)I'm disturbed by just reading the discription of the scene.
I just wanted to join the "thank you for doing the right thing" chorus.
The fact that the news hasn't exploded about this yet is good. There's no need to exploit this poor woman and your actions saved her from that fate.
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Date: 2006-10-27 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 09:16 pm (UTC)http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/10/no_foul_play_su.html
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 09:05 pm (UTC)(i always wonder the same thing when i'm at a waterway or walking through a less-used part of a park)
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Date: 2006-10-27 09:09 pm (UTC)They call you "a commuter" in the article =\
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Date: 2006-10-27 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 12:54 am (UTC)But it's good that she was found quickly. You did the right thing.
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Date: 2006-10-28 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 02:02 am (UTC)I'm sorry you had to deal with this, what a scary, sad experience...
I hope her family is ok...
been there
Date: 2007-01-23 04:43 am (UTC)Muddy River over time...
Date: 2007-02-03 09:23 pm (UTC)It was planned to be a peaceful riverine scene,and it was until the mid 1930s. First it was the "gypsies"...the vagrants ,vagabonds and hobos, the
homeless poor,then the drunks, then the thugs, then the hoodlums and perverts. A soldier at Netherlands Road ,strangled with his own belt, was
killed by a gang of robbers, in 1942 was the first death in the park
along the Muddy I knew of, but then maybe one death a year since. A young womans body found at the little island park ,Parkway Rd.
another murdered at the Fenway T Stop, the mutilated aupare at Ipswich St., the 'park dweller man' at a foot bridge near Wheelock, and several childrens deaths by drowning, and the stabbing of the youth for his Olympic jacket at Carlton Bridge. I'm sure there are many more deaths along the river that Im not aware of. All parts of Fredric Law Olmsted's pastoral park are dangerous. Do not take chances. Travel in pairs,never in darkness. You are some mothers
child! Keep cellphone 911 on speed contact.