A Brooklyn woman headed home from a Chelsea party plunged to her death inside a basement trash compactor after wandering into a high-end Manhattan building on her way home from the get-together, police said Saturday.
Family and friends of victim Jaclyn Elmquist, 24, were left searching for answers after her night on the town ended in horror, with the NYPD saying no criminality was suspected in the tragedy and a police source indicating investigators were looking into whether alcohol was involved in her death.
“It’s the most tragic loss of life,” a friend told the Daily News one day after Elmquist’s body was discovered Friday afternoon inside the luxury Chelsea residence just 11 blocks south of the Ninth Ave. steakhouse where she was earlier hanging out with colleagues.
A missing person poster circulated by friends after her disappearance said Elmquist was last seen hailing a cab outside the Catch Steakhouse after departing around 10 p.m. A security camera later caught Elmquist apparently getting buzzed inside the + arts building on W. 28th St. building on Thursday night, with the victim’s body located there the next day.
There was no word Saturday from the NYC Medical Examiner on autopsy results, and the victim’s distraught sister declined to speak about the tragedy where security video showed the woman walking unsteadily along the sidewalk before entering the residence. The NYPD, one day after police were called to the scene around 2:40 p.m., said her injuries were consistent with falling down the garbage chute.
“No, no, no,” said Davidson Stewart, 59, the longtime super of the woman’s apartment building. “She kept to herself. Friendly, ‘Hi, good evening, how you doing?’ Nice young girl. It looked like she was happy … It’s sad. It looked light she had a bright future.”
Police responding to a 911 call discovered Elmquist’s corpse inside the compactor, a police source told the Daily News. Her phone, apparently dropped by the victim at some point, was later recovered away from the scene of her death, according to online posts by friends.
Apartments in the pricey building where the body was found went for $5,500 a month, with a two-bedroom condo listed for sale on the Street Easy website at $2.48 million.
A distraught cousin of the dead woman posted on Twitter that Elmquist “didn’t come home or show up for work (Friday), please spread the word so people in the area can see it since all of her family lives here in Minnesota.”
Elmquist, a 2022 graduate of Skidmore College and employee of a recruiting firm, was not a drinker, according to a Facebook posting before authorities located the victim’s body.
