Woman was found shot to death and in a state of decomposition in the Bronx, after her neighbor complained about the bad smell

A 45-year-old woman was found dead with gunshot wounds and in a state of decomposition in her apartment located in the Bronx, authorities reported.

Officers knock on the door of Cindy Maxwell at Parkiside Houses on Arnow Avenue near Barker Avenue in Allerton at 3.50pm on Saturday, after receiving a call requesting to check on her well-being.

The call was made by a neighbor downstairs who said he was alarmed by the bad smell.

“Upstairs it smelled like 200 dead rats,” said a neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “When leaving the elevator there was a really unpleasant smell. I had to locate that scent and called it out.”

Officials found Maxwell dead on his back inside his apartment. The victim was shot multiple times in the chest, police said.

“She was lying in the living room with bullet wounds to her body,” said the neighbor below. “She was breaking down. Her body was swollen ”.

A resident said he heard four shots Wednesday but police reported to a different building in the apartment complex, perhaps because of the way the sound resonates through the housing development.

“I know what a dead body smells like and I just trusted my gut. I called the police for a wellness check on that apartment,” she stated. “No one has come since the shooting. I thought, ‘I’m sick of this and it’s been smelling like this for two days.’”

Maxwell worked as a home helper, said a friend, identified as Marta Medina, the Daily News reported.

“He was a good person,” explained Medina, 50. She “she lived in the building for a long time and had two daughters. One I think she was 11 and the other around 6”.

It was not clear who has custody of the children at this time, nor where they lived in the days before their mother’s body was discovered.

“It really surprised me,” Medina said. “She did me a favor last week. She gave me a can of spaghetti sauce… I don’t know anyone who did this to her.”

So far no arrests have been made in this case.

This homicide establishes the four murders in the 49th district of The Bronx so far in 2023. The district registered nine violent deaths in all of 2022, according to statistics from the New York Police Department.

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