Cops: Woman found dead was homicide victim

The woman whose body was found Monday morning at the edge of a parking lot in a Riverhead shopping center was the victim of a homicide, police said Tuesday.

Mirian Garcia, 29, of Flanders, was found at 8:20 a.m., at the Riverhead Shopping Center at 200 Old Country Rd., Suffolk County police said.

An employee coming to work at the shopping center saw the body and called Riverhead police, who came and found the woman dead, said Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick of the Suffolk County police.

"There were no obvious signs of violence," he said.

The Suffolk County medical examiner subsequently "determined the woman's death is a homicide," police said in a news release Tuesday. Police did not say how she was killed.

Garcia was found at a small strip mall with a convenience store, a state Department of Motor Vehicles office, restaurants and a financial institution.