Archive of Newspaper Articles about
Fort Tilden
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Updated: December 3, 2000
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Park Police Find Burned Body At Former Army Fort in Queens
Date: Jan 16, 2000
Newspaper: New York Times
By: Jason Blair
The badly burned body of an unidentified man was found early yesterday morning on the grounds of a federal wildlife refuge on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, the police said.
The body of the man, believed to be in his late 20's, was found after two United States Park Police officers saw smoke rising above the trees at Fort Tilden, part of the Gateway National
Recreation Area, officials said.
"The park police were driving by and saw something burning in the distance," said Officer Chris Cottingham, a spokesman for the New York Police Department.
The officers searched for about 20 minutes before they found the body. Investigators think the victim was shot elsewhere, then dumped at the park and set on fire, said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In a prepared statement, Sgt. Steven Battista
of the United States Park Police said that officers found the "unidentified man smoldering in the brush area" and "his body was on fire," but provided few additional details.
The body was found about 7:50 a.m. about 100 yards off Rockaway Point Boulevard, within a fenced-off portion of Fort Tilden, a 317-acre former United States Army base, the official said.
The officers called the New York Fire Department and other agencies. The fire was extinguished by police officers who borrowed an extinguisher from a nearby fire station, one worker there said.
The fort is not open to the public. A long fence surrounds it, and razor wire surrounds the silos where nuclear missiles once stood ready for launching during the cold war. The land now
serves primarily as a home to endangered waterfowl.
The base once housed conventional and nuclear-tipped Nike-Hercules missiles and antiaircraft guns to protect the corridor from New York to Philadelphia from attack. It was a part of the New York Harbor defense system until it was abandoned in 1974 as part of a treaty with the Soviet Union.
Although the body was found on United States government property, New York police detectives were taking the lead role in the investigation, officials said. Sergeant Battista said officials had not yet determined where the man had been killed and doubted that he had merely been walking on the nature trails.
"This is very unusual," Sergeant Battista said "In 28 years of patrolling the area, we've never found anyone dead in the park."
The park police routinely patrol Fort Tilden, which has become a popular spot among teenagers and among homeless people on the Rockaway Peninsula who seek shelter in its abandoned buildings.