NYPD Suspects 83-Year Old Serial Killer Harvey Marcelin Is Responsible For Dismembering Woman

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has a suspect in custody days after discovering severed limbs, including a head, strewn across the Big Apple.

On Thursday, the NYPD arrested 83-year old Harvey Marcelin on charges of concealing a human corpse. With Marcelin now arrested, it appears that police have put an end to a murder mystery that involved the discovery of body parts belonging to a dead woman across Brooklyn that began last week.

On March 3, the case began when a woman’s torso was discovered in a garbage bag in a shopping cart on a busy street in East New York, Brooklyn during the early morning hours. Five days later, on March 8, a leg was discovered in Cypress Hill only blocks away from where the torso was discovered.

The victim was identified as 68-year old Susan Layden, who was last known to be residing in an LGBTQ shelter near Clinton Hill.

Police narrowed in on Marcelin soon after Layden’s torso was found in East New York. On March 4, the day after the discovery, NBC New York reported that detectives were questioning an unidentified suspect in the case. This person appears to be Marcelin, who police revealed they arrested that same day.

Surveillance footage captured near Marcelin’s apartment which showed Layden entering it on Feb. 27 led police to the suspect. When police arrived at the home, they discovered a severed head as well as an electric saw that was purchased from Home Depot. Marcelin is currently being held without bail at Rikers Island.

According to the New York Post, Marcelin is no stranger to violence against women and has a criminal rap sheet going back 50 years. Marcelin was first arrested in the April 1963 shooting death of Jacqueline Bonds and was sentenced to life imprisonment, but released on parole in 1984.

Less than a year after that release, Marcelin killed another woman by stabbing her to death and leaving her body in a bag in Central Park. In 1986, Marcelin was again convicted for the killing and sentenced before being released in late-2019.

According to court documents related to a parole hearing interview in 1997, Marcelin admitted that there were personal “problems with women.”

Despite this arrest, the NYPD said that the investigation remains ongoing.