A suspect has been arrested and charged with concealment of a human corpse two days after a man’s body was found dumped in a blue bin outside the victim’s Brooklyn apartment building, police said Sunday.
Christopher Moss, 38, was arrested around 3 p.m. Sunday, cops said. He lives in the building on E. 21st St. near Ditmas Ave. in Flatbush where the decomposed body was discovered in a trash area Friday, according to police.
Cops could not immediately confirm the victim’s identity. Family members told the Daily News that he was Darrell Montgomery, 33, who also lived in the building, and may have been the suspect’s roommate.
Moss is charged with concealment of a human corpse, according to police.
Police have not found any limbs or additional human remains after searching the premises, a source told The News. The body, which initially appeared dismembered, is now thought to have been complete — although seriously decomposed —when it was dumped, the source said.
Construction workers discovered the body in a trash bag inside a large blue plastic bin near the building’s garbage area after smelling a foul odor around 9 a.m. Friday.
Kerry Burke / New York Daily News
Workers found the body in a trash bag inside a large blue plastic bin near the building’s garbage area on Friday morning. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)
Montgomery was slender and just 5-feet-4, his family said.
Montgomery’s mother, who did not wish to be named, told The News she passed out on the train when detectives called and told her what happened to her son. Montgomery’s family described him as a gentle soul.
“My son was a loving son,” the grieving mom told The News outside the place where his remains were found, an area that remained cordoned off by police tape on Saturday. “He stays to himself and he didn’t bother nobody.”
Neighbors said Montgomery was living with a much taller man, possibly a boyfriend, before the victim’s body was discovered. Montgomery’s family said they did not know the roommate.
Until recently the pair seemed inseparable.
“They were always together,” 54-year-old building resident Robert Lacount said of the pair, noting, “Where you saw the tall one, you saw the short one.”
“I saw the tall one sitting in the lobby two days ago,” Lacount said. “I thought he was waiting for the short one, but then he just disappeared.”
Lacount said the men had lived together in the building for a couple of years, moving in around the time the COVID-19 pandemic was dying down.
The remains were brought to the city medical examiner’s office, which will conduct an autopsy and officially identify the victim. The investigation is ongoing, police said.
Moss’ arraignment was pending Sunday evening.
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