The 68-year-old woman allegedly killed and dismembered by a Brooklyn octogenarian, who had also been convicted twice of other murders, died of “homicidal violence,” the city’s medical examiner said Saturday.
Susan Leyden, whose cause of death included blunt force trauma to the head, was living in an LGBTQ+ senior housing community in Fort Greene at the time of her death, law enforcement sources said.
Harvey Marcelin, 83, who spent decades in prison for two previous convictions in the deaths of other women, was charged in Leyden’s death. Marcelin was seen in a video sitting on a human leg as she strolled through a store in a scooter motorized. The suspect allegedly killed Leyden and discarded his torso in the street, police said earlier this month.
Authorities say the two knew each other, but the extent of their relationship is unclear.
Days later, a human leg was found blocks from Leyden’s torso and has not been definitively linked to the same victim, but law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case linked the body part to Leyden.
Marcelin was officially arrested on charges including murder and tampering with physical evidence in Leyden’s death, New York City Police said.
The uniformed shared a video that, they say, shows the scooter motorized with the leg under. Authorities say Marcelin is later seen in a video at the scooter while talking to another person in a clothing store, among other merchandise.
The torso was found in early March on the corner of Atlantic and Pennsylvania avenues, just outside a construction safety equipment store next to a carpet store. This was found by a passerby who noticed the bag on the way to a friend’s house in Greenpoint and decided to open it.
He was the one who called 9-1-1.
The body of a woman, missing her head, arms and legs, was found in a trash bag in a shopping cart at a Brooklyn intersection Thursday morning, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case says. .
A search warrant executed at Marcelin’s apartment found a human head, according to a criminal complaint, along with saw blades. Law enforcement sources say tarot cards were also found on a table inside the apartment, and investigators are investigating whether they played a role in Leyden’s death.
According to prison records cited by the New York PostMarcelin has been convicted twice for murders in the past. Marcelin spent more than 50 years in state prison for murder and manslaughter dating back to 1963. Marcelin’s previous convictions were for killing girlfriends she was living with, according to court documents.
A jury found Marcelin guilty of murder in 1963 for shooting and killing Jacqueline Bonds inside a Manhattan apartment. At the time, Marcelin was also facing a charge of attempted rape involving another woman, according to court records.
The judge sentenced Marcelin to life in prison after jurors could not agree on whether the crime warranted the death penalty.
NYPD investigates if there is a relationship in both cases.
Marcelin was paroled for life in May 1984, the Post reported, and arrested again for stabbing another girlfriend less than a year later and leaving her body in a garbage bag on the street near Central Park. Marcelin was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to between six and 12 years in prison.
State officials were reluctant to grant parole when Marcelin qualified in the 1990s. During a State Board of Parole hearing in 1997, Marcelin admitted to having “problems” with women, according to court records. Other boards rejected parole citing Marcelin’s “attempt to blame” the victims.
Marcelin was released from prison at the end of 2019 on parole.
Police stress that their investigation is ongoing and that they are reviewing similar cases of missing persons since Marcelin’s last release from prison to determine if there are more victims. Marcelin is being represented by Legal Aid, which did not respond to email requests for comment from our sister network. News 4.
Marcelin refuses to speak to the police after her arrest.
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