The mysterious death of a Brooklyn mother of four whose body was found cut up and stuffed in a garbage bag has been solved with NYPD detectives determining she had died in a grisly accident, NYPD officials said Friday.
The remains of Michelle Montgomery were found by NYCHA workers cleaning out the trash compactor room at Borinquen Plaza on Bushwick Ave. near Seigel St. in East Williamsburg at about 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 1, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said during a briefing at police headquarters.
While the 39-year-old mom’s death was first investigated as a homicide, detectives later determined that she fell into the compactor in an attempt to retrieve something that fell into a trash chute.
“Our theory right now is that she may have dropped an item into the chute and went to retrieve it,” Kenny told reporters during a briefing at NYPD headquarters. “She fell head-first into the chute and ended up in the chute room, two floors down, and was processed through.”
Detectives believe Montgomery was crushed to death by the compactor, Kenny said.
“As of right now, the autopsy indicates that this was accidental,” he said. “There are no indications that it was a homicide. She has no defensive wounds whatsoever and multiple witnesses say they heard screaming from inside the compactor.”
The night of her death, Montgomery celebrated with her cousin and three friends and had posted video of herself twerking shortly after 11 p.m. inside of Mama Taco, located on Flushing Ave., about a 10-minute walk from where her remains were found.
It was still not clear how the victim, who lived in another NYCHA complex, ended up at Borinquen Plaza.
“She leaves with her cousin at about 1:20 a.m. and they get separated,” Kenny said. “We see her walking alone into (the NYCHA building). She doesn’t have any connection to that building whatsoever.”
Hours later, NYCHA workers find her remains in the locked compactor room. They also find her purse with two forms of identification, Kenny said.
“We believe she was trying to get her purse,” Kenny said.
The compactor automatically bags whatever is crushed, Kenny said.
“The remains were found inside of a black garbage bag that had been already processed the garbage,” he said. “So whatever garbage that was in there had already gone through the compactor machine.”
An autopsy determined that Montgomery died from horrific injuries while in the compactor, including deep slashes across her body, multiple puncture wounds and broken bones, including her rib cage.
News of her death two weeks ago had left her relatives shattered.
“Everybody is in shock,” her husband, 37-year-old Anthony Echevarria, told the Daily News shortly after her death. “Things are running through my head like a broken record. We’ve been holding each other ever since (we found out).”
Montgomery had two sons one 19 the other just 10 months old, and two daughters, ages 12 and 11. She lived at the Gowanus Houses nearly four miles from where her body was found.
She worked for Amazon and “was making Valentine baskets, Easter baskets as a side hustle,” one neighbor said.
The news also rattled neighbors in the building where her body was found. The building was the scene of a gruesome double murder in 2008 in which a woman was fatally shot by her abusive boyfriend, who was then shot dead shot by the woman’s vengeful father.
Resident Rebecca Davila, 57, said she has been watching her back since the discovery.
“It was scary to go downstairs — you just can’t believe something like that happened in your building,” she said. “In the 15 years I lived here, I never seen anything like that.”
