Cops were hunting last night for the boyfriend of a mentally ill woman found viciously bashed to death and possibly raped in a rocky and wooded area at the northwest edge of Central Park.
The early-morning slaying of Susan Fuchs, 39, apparently was preceded by a violent argument in a hilly and woodsy spot where Fuchs, the boyfriend and others often gathered, about 150 feet from 108th Street and West Drive, police sources said. Police did not release the boyfriend’s name.
It was the second homicide in the park this year.
Fuchs, whom sources said last lived at a group home, was discovered at 10:55 a.m. lying face-up by a passerby, who notified a Parks Department employee, said police assistant Chief William Taylor.
Her body was clad in only a white T-shirt and socks, her jeans and running shoes nearby, police sources said.
The right side of the woman’s skull had been bashed in with repeated blows – probably from a rock – opening an 8-to-10-inch gash from her forehead to the back of her head, these sources said.
A rock covered with blood was found near the corpse, and detectives were checking to see if it was used in the attack. Tests also were under way to see if the woman had been sexually assaulted, sources said.
“I’ve never seen such a horrible crime,” said one distraught park worker who glimpsed the victim’s body after it was found. “She had a smashed face and cut arm …”
Next to Fuchs’ body, detectives also found two shopping bags filled with her belongings. A welfare card was found among them.
“Her whole life is in these bags,” said one law-enforcement source.
Fuchs, whose family lives in Brooklyn, had a psychiatric history dating back to at least 1994, when she apparently began treatment at the Bensonhurst Out-Patient Department, also known as the Bensonhurst Clinic, a satellite of the South Beach psychiatric hospital on Staten Island, police sources said.
They said the woman left the clinic – but it was not clear why – and was then referred to care at Interfaith Medical Center, where there also is a psychiatric clinic.
Officials at both facilities were not immediately available for comment.
There was just one murder in the park last year, and one in May this year. Both remain unsolved.
The latest horror touched off a new wave of fear and revulsion for many park-goers who use the area for a leafy refuge from urban life, though one high-ranking cop insisted it was “still the safest park in America.”
John River, 36, who takes his daughters daily to the same park area, said he was shocked by the slaying.
“I’ll think twice about coming back here,” he said.
Scott Flores, 37, said cops usually are all over the area.
“I feel terrible about this,” he said. “I’m a New Yorker and I hate things like this happening.”
“They keep telling us it’s safe,” said Thomas Soto, 44, a painter, who added he had been mugged in the park three years ago, “but it’s really dangerous.”