A Brooklyn man has been arrested and charged with the concealment of a human corpse after skeletal remains were discovered hidden under piled-up junk on a couch in his apartment. Jose Rivera, 53, was taken into custody Friday.
The discovery was made Thursday morning by a cleaning crew inside the building on Union Street near Utica Avenue in Crown Heights. According to prosecutors and law enforcement sources, the body had decomposed to the point of being only bones and was buried under clothes, picture frames, and other debris.
Rivera initially refused to allow the cleaning crew access to the apartment, despite neighbors having complained about a foul odor, according to a criminal complaint and sources. The identity of the deceased remains unknown, and the city’s medical examiner’s office has not yet determined a cause of death due to the advanced decomposition.
The building where the remains were found reportedly houses mentally ill and disabled residents.
Rivera pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Sunday and was released on his own recognizance. He has prior arrests, including one in 2018 for criminal possession of a weapon.