UPDATE: Monday, September 28 at 7:40 a.m.: Jonathan Robles, 36, was arrested and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with a woman found dead with stab wounds in Central Park, police announced on Sunday night.
The 63-year-old woman was found unresponsive Sunday morning with the injuries inside a gazebo near 74th Street and East Drive, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
NYPD provided a homeless shelter in Midtown as the address for Robles.
The victim also appeared to be homeless and living in Central Park, the New York Times reported.
By Gus Saltonstall
A woman with stab wounds was found dead Sunday morning in a Central Park gazebo, according to police and multiple publications.
The woman was found with numerous stab wounds to the body and trauma to the head around 9:40 a.m. in the park near 74th Street and East Drive, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The New York Times reported that the police were questioning a man about the death on Sunday morning, but there have been no arrests as of Sunday at 3:45 p.m. Both the victim and the man being questioned appeared to be homeless, according to the New York Times.
The woman was found barefoot and covered in dirt, the Times added.
The cause of death remains under investigation.
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Since the reporting last week of the 4 burglaries in one night in the park I’ve been trying to get up to date stats from the police precinct but when I go to this page
https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/patrol/precincts/central-park-precinct.page
they haven’t updated the crime stats since the 13th although they’ve updated the traffic pages.
I’m sure I sound like a conspiracy theorist but maybe they are trying to cover up how bad it is getting
Four burglaries in Central Park? You mean, stick-ups / robberies?
You 100 percent are a conspiracy theorist
You are not.
Crime is down except if you’re the victim.
Agree, crime is down (?) …”it’s a perception…” as stated by a political leader.
Yes this is generally how statistics versus individual experience works.
Yes, looking good NYC. A woman stabbed to death in the park. Both probably mentally ill and unhoused yet the Mayor and elected officials allow the mentally ill to roam everywhere. Not one of them doing anything to address it. Yes, it’s hard to fix but how about they at least try and do something. instead of ignore it and allow it to continue. How many people have to be pushed onto the tracks or stabbed?
A big thing would be changes to state laws about involuntary commitment of mentally ill people with a history of violence.
We have Kendras law and they don’t even use that
Correction: “Woman found murdered”
Terrifying.
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/09/27/pedestrian-struck-by-cyclist-in-central-park-has-died
More sad news in Central Park.
Cyclists in Central Park are a menace.
I agree. They cycle all over the park with impunity. The “no wheels” signs at the entrances to the park are small and barely legible.
No one gives a persimmon about signs stating rules that are not enforced.
So awful. While i can understand why Streetsblog would try to write it in a way that shows cyclist remorse, i can only hope this is a wake up call for the many speeding cyclist who ride through the park. I have tried to cross some of the drives many times, with the light in my favor, and many of these riders blow through with such speed and intention. Sometimes they swerve sometimes they don’t. Many really dont seem to care. It is terrorizing. I often feel it is not if but when and its not how i want to die. Feel so sorry for this poor family. Parks should be a safe place for everyone to enjoy.
“The woman was found with numerous stab wounds to the body and trauma to the head” and the cause of death “remains under investigation?” I’m betting it’s not the plague.
Folks are reporting the victim was in her early 60s, white, slim build, named Lee. Seems she was known as a sweet woman by CP regulars
Sadly we have the ACLU to thank for the street homeless crisis. Removal of these poor souls from the streets would so beneficial for them and for all New Yorkers. Our ubiquitous Mayor should spend less time on things like free Opera Tickets and devote more focus to resolving the street homeless crisis.
The ACLU has nothing to do with it. The Coalition for the Homeless does. The ACLU deals with First Amendment issues, but thanks for the MIS-information, the hallmark of the right wing. Furthermore, poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse are issues that cause homelessness. Freedom of religion, the press, and reading, teaching, and the like don’t have anything to do with homelessness. Glad to fill you in here. Shuttering of mental institutions by the fiscally cheap GOP in the 1980s has much to do with it.
That was 45 years ago. Since then we had the Bloomberg/ Giuliani years where this city started thriving again. And the tide is turning unfortunately
Isnt the park closed overnight? Are people supposed to live in Central Park? Maybe start enforcing laws that do exist. When I was a child police regularly patrolled areas where they suspected trouble could occur. They made us move along. Maybe someone will still manage and be clever enough to find a safe hiding spot? Win for them. Instead we permit flagrant and visible law breaking – people living out in the open in all sorts of areas not zoned for living and then are “shocked” when crime happens. Stop tolerating it to begin with and see what happens to crime. Its not a human right to live in Central Park.
Agreed – enforce the damned laws. That’s all. Don’t smoke weed in the park, don’t drive automated vehicles in the park…etc etc
Wise words, but will never happen in NYC.
Isn’t this homicide scene the exact location of the late 1990s Daphne Abdela case. I mean, the EXACT gazebo?!
Horrific
Please remove the homeless. They are a danger to everyone.
I have to say that I am appalled at the comments that WSR is allowing to stand here. A woman who was know to many of us in the neighborhood was murdered, and this callous “Sam” is allowed to post that SHE was the danger?
Even Gothamist, not exactly a paragon of reasoned discourse, pulled down comments contemptuous of her. IF you are doing worse than them, you need to rethink your posting policies.
Finally, what does “Please remove the homeless” mean? Remove them to where, exactly?
You seem to feel “the homeless” are a homogenous mass, all alike, and all “a danger to everyone.”
Really? Was the homeless woman who was murdered “a danger to everyone”? And where shall this large mass of people be moved to? Perhaps ICE can gather them all up and send them to various other countries, along with all the immigrants…
Universal housing for all 🙂 sweet, I like it
This horrific and tragic story has been in numerous media outlets. Many reports simply say that Frances Lee Rogers (she went by other names, too, apparently) spent nights in the gazebo. The media have not been adding that people are not supposed to be in Central Park after 1 AM. How is it that someone’s residing in the gazebo, or the equivalent, is not considered worthy of comment? Maybe if the authorities – police, Central Park Conservancy, not sure who they are – had done their job, Ms. Rogers would not have been spending nights in the park and would not have been killed.