Cops: Female body found outside Bay Shore apartments

A female body was found Friday morning in a parking lot on South Clinton Avenue in Bay Shore, Suffolk County police said.

Police said they responded to the scene, behind a trash container outside an apartment complex called The Birches, after a 9:15 a.m. call from a neighbor.

Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk homicide squad, said Friday he didn't know the victim's age or whether she was a resident of The Birches. He said police had no information about the cause of death.

The victim's body was taken to the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, where an autopsy will be performed Saturday, police said.

Several neighbors who live in The Birches but did not want to give their names said they saw the body wrapped in a light pink sheet behind the trash container Friday morning. One woman said it looked like a petite female body wrapped in the sheet. She saw the body while going to her car this morning, she said, adding that all of the tenants of the complex have been accounted for.

Raymond Castro said he and his wife have lived in the complex for 15 years, but now he wants to move. Castro, 67, said the company that manages his apartment has refused to install surveillance cameras, which he says he requested because of vandalism at the complex. "It's not safe to live over here anymore," Castro said.

NAI Long Island, the company that manages The Birches, declined to comment when reached by phone at their Melville office.