Police say the death of a 27-year-old woman found in her bed with a scarf wrapped around her neck in Manhattan appears to be suspicious.
The woman, identified as Brooke Garcia, mother of a 4-year-old child, was found underneath a white blanket on her bed in the Wald Houses at 10 Avenue D in the East Village at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said. She was declared dead at the scene.
A man was taken into custody on an unrelated charge, police said. He was being questioned about the woman's death but is not considered a suspect. Law enforcement sources tell NBC 4 the 36-year-old man was being questioned in a New Year's Eve assault in which a woman was punched in the face and left with a bloody mouth.
Garcia's next-door neighbor, Delia Cancel, said she just saw her in the hallway Tuesday.
"Now to find out she's gone, it's horrible," she said.
Another neighbor, Katy Hernandez, said, "We were here, I was with the dog, and not even she heard anything. Nerve-racking to know it was right there."
Oscar Ruiz, a friend of Garcia, described her as "a real quiet person. She was cool. Always to herself."
Ruiz said she cared deeply about her child.
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"That's all we used to do, was talking about her daughter. About change, basically, that's what it was all about, is change," he said. "She used to always call her duaghter, find out how her daughter is."
The medical examiner's office is working to determine how she died.
