While admitting that we are maybe missing some information, if we are to believe the police version, we have to accept that she 1) was so drunk she went into the wrong building, even though she must have made the trip a thousand times, and her friends had decided she was sober enough to go home alone, 2) decided she had to throw something in the trash, 3) was so drunk she dropped her purse down the chute, even though she had carried a purse for most of her life, 4) thought for some reason she could get the purse back if she just leaned far enough down the chute, even though she must have used the identical chute in her building many, many times, and 5) fit completely inside a garbage bag.
Regular, non-recyclable trash must be placed in bags (usually black bags) before being thrown into a chute to avoid (as much as possible) what would be the mess and odors left by unbagged garbage before it actually enters the compacting system. However, depending on the number of residential units in a building without an automatic compacting system, unbagged, non-recyclable trash may be put into securely covered bins. NYC ranks third among the top three "rattiest" U.S. cities behind LA and Chicago.
Even here in Sarasota we have to put our trash in bags before it is picked up. Dog poop, used tampons, spoiled milk, dead mice, all thrown unbagged down that chute in the hope that it will get to the bottom immediately and be bagged up. And y'all pay HOW much to live like that?!
Thanks for the plug, Gene, and welcome to those of you taking a chance on my poems about food and science! (I also write the occasional salty limerick.) I’m an old-school adherent of rhyme and meter, and the sonnet (literally, “little song”) is my preferred vehicle. Ciao, H
Gene I believe you may be getting that dementia thing that’s going around…. Love your humor but today…. Well it is Valentines Day, why not explain the gruesome origins of that. Love you anyway!!! $4.16 a month sounds more inviting. I would subscribe double if necessary 🩷
Gene, if I wanted to read stories like this I'd be subscribing to the NY Post. Whatever led you to print such a truly gruesome story, and on the 2nd "anniversary" of how Navalry was murdered ? It must be Valentine's Day somewhere, so please write a lovely poem to Rachel--and maybe to all of us--so we can try to forget this horrifically trashy piece. Ouch...
I said more to it because I can imagine she just knew where the trash chute would be based on building familiarity (or could make an educated guess) and just wanted to throw something out, dropped her purse and even made a fast lunge before thinking about it, but you don't enter the wrong building in a very different part of town thinking you're in your own building nor do you enter a different building just to throw something out... so she was likely with someone and being with someone means someone would have noticed she went missing even if she'd said "wait here" while she went to throw "it" out. At the very least someone knew she'd had an accident and didn't attempt to render aid or call for help. She's not that dunk in the video either - note the quick alert way she turns her head and keeps her balance with the fairly sharp turn at the very end of the video. You can of course chug quite a lot in two hours but to get lost-in-your-own-town and enter-wrong-building-by-mistake you have to really work at it.
Either way, clearly these things need to be redesigned considering people probably send their kids to take out the garbage, the potentially elderly are using the system, and so on. It seems a wonder if some building owner or trash handling system manufacturer hasn't been previously sued for wrongful death.
There have been a good many personal injury suits alleging negligence and improper maintenance over the years; fortunately far fewer wrongful death suits, the last being (at least publicly known) in 2023 for a tragic incident similar to this one that happened five years earlier. The woman involved in the 2018 incident had a blood alcohol level almost twice what is considered legally highly intoxicated in NY and I suspect the autopsy of this poor woman also showed a similar level, or enough to cause confusion. Alcohol suppresses impulse control, judgment, and decision-making, while lowering inhibitions, dulling the brain's "alarm system," often leading to all sorts of erratic and otherwise inexplicable behavior.
I have to go with Rachel on this. I just spent some time researching trash compactors in an effort to solve this riddle (crime?). There are (of course!) OSHA standards requiring guards. See OSHA standard summarized below:
“OSHA standard, 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(3)(ii) requires that, in the absence of applicable specific standards, a guard must be designed and constructed as to prevent the operator from having any part of his body in the danger zone during the operating cycle. Specifically, the OSHA standard requires that the vertical hydraulic downstroke/trash compactor must have a guard above the ram/piston if any part of the operator's body is exposed to the danger zone during the operating cycle.”
In other words, a person acting alone would not be able to enter the machine and still be able to operate it. In addition, I can’t imagine getting so drunk that I wandered into a different home, even if it had a similar appearance to mine, if my home were a “very considerable distance” away from my home. (But then, I can’t imagine getting so drunk that I would put on a twerking show on Facebook. No one would want to see that.)
My tentative hypothesis, to add more gruesomeness to this case, is that Ms. Montgomery was the victim of a rape/murder. She probably met a guy who talked her into accompanying her to his apartment, and disposed of the body via the trash compactor. The perp probably lives right in the same building where Ms. Montgomery was trashed, so to speak, since he apparently knew the location and operation of the compactor. Looks like the NYPD has made its mind on this case, so there will probably not be any further investigation. If there is, I’d certainly like to know the outcome.
I answered yes and I will tell you why. My husband had a friend, who was known to drink a little. One night he and a few friends went drinking on the roof of a very old high rise, a building probably built in the '20s. His companions left for home. He stayed. He went missing. His body was found in the boiler room where, it was surmised, he landed after somehow falling into the chimney.
Lynn, *I* like to drink a little. I have gotten rip-roaringly drunk in various parts of the civilized world (at least until I got there) and have behaved badly on occasion (although never badly enough to get a ride in a police car). I cannot fathom getting so drunk that I went on a roof and looked down a chimney and wondered "hey, where does this go, and can I fit?"....that's frightening!
We'll never know what he was thinking or if it was an accident. It was not a stretch to imagine him simply climbing up on the chimney and falling by accident. He engaged in a lot of reckless behavior, and pretty much always blind drunk, so the story surprised no one. He was very sweet and good natured. The story also made everyone sad.
Seems like a good beginning for a mystery/police procedural book.
I've never lived in NYC, but I've seen trash chutes before, and they were never big enough to fit a full-size adult easily enough for someone to fall in accidentally.
I feel like this must be an episode of “Only Murders in the Building”
Just what are you inciner...um...insinuating, Terri?
No "Spoiler alert" ?
hahahahaha
While admitting that we are maybe missing some information, if we are to believe the police version, we have to accept that she 1) was so drunk she went into the wrong building, even though she must have made the trip a thousand times, and her friends had decided she was sober enough to go home alone, 2) decided she had to throw something in the trash, 3) was so drunk she dropped her purse down the chute, even though she had carried a purse for most of her life, 4) thought for some reason she could get the purse back if she just leaned far enough down the chute, even though she must have used the identical chute in her building many, many times, and 5) fit completely inside a garbage bag.
The system automatically bags whatever is crushed? Then why do they need to put their trash in trash bags?
They do not, in most NYC buildings' trash systems, I believe.
Regular, non-recyclable trash must be placed in bags (usually black bags) before being thrown into a chute to avoid (as much as possible) what would be the mess and odors left by unbagged garbage before it actually enters the compacting system. However, depending on the number of residential units in a building without an automatic compacting system, unbagged, non-recyclable trash may be put into securely covered bins. NYC ranks third among the top three "rattiest" U.S. cities behind LA and Chicago.
Even here in Sarasota we have to put our trash in bags before it is picked up. Dog poop, used tampons, spoiled milk, dead mice, all thrown unbagged down that chute in the hope that it will get to the bottom immediately and be bagged up. And y'all pay HOW much to live like that?!
I had this in the District of Columbia and it worked just fine at The Berkshire over by American University.
Thanks for the plug, Gene, and welcome to those of you taking a chance on my poems about food and science! (I also write the occasional salty limerick.) I’m an old-school adherent of rhyme and meter, and the sonnet (literally, “little song”) is my preferred vehicle. Ciao, H
Gene I believe you may be getting that dementia thing that’s going around…. Love your humor but today…. Well it is Valentines Day, why not explain the gruesome origins of that. Love you anyway!!! $4.16 a month sounds more inviting. I would subscribe double if necessary 🩷
"The thing so Robert Burnsed and Gertrude Steined."
❣️
Drunken twerking at Mama Taco leads to bad ends…
Can't imagine what you'll come up with to commemorate Singles Awareness Day tomorrow.
Or maybe you can guess.
Gene, if I wanted to read stories like this I'd be subscribing to the NY Post. Whatever led you to print such a truly gruesome story, and on the 2nd "anniversary" of how Navalry was murdered ? It must be Valentine's Day somewhere, so please write a lovely poem to Rachel--and maybe to all of us--so we can try to forget this horrifically trashy piece. Ouch...
You know, you don't HAVE to read it. Gene's first paragraph is a warning for those of you with weak stomachs.
I said more to it because I can imagine she just knew where the trash chute would be based on building familiarity (or could make an educated guess) and just wanted to throw something out, dropped her purse and even made a fast lunge before thinking about it, but you don't enter the wrong building in a very different part of town thinking you're in your own building nor do you enter a different building just to throw something out... so she was likely with someone and being with someone means someone would have noticed she went missing even if she'd said "wait here" while she went to throw "it" out. At the very least someone knew she'd had an accident and didn't attempt to render aid or call for help. She's not that dunk in the video either - note the quick alert way she turns her head and keeps her balance with the fairly sharp turn at the very end of the video. You can of course chug quite a lot in two hours but to get lost-in-your-own-town and enter-wrong-building-by-mistake you have to really work at it.
Either way, clearly these things need to be redesigned considering people probably send their kids to take out the garbage, the potentially elderly are using the system, and so on. It seems a wonder if some building owner or trash handling system manufacturer hasn't been previously sued for wrongful death.
There have been a good many personal injury suits alleging negligence and improper maintenance over the years; fortunately far fewer wrongful death suits, the last being (at least publicly known) in 2023 for a tragic incident similar to this one that happened five years earlier. The woman involved in the 2018 incident had a blood alcohol level almost twice what is considered legally highly intoxicated in NY and I suspect the autopsy of this poor woman also showed a similar level, or enough to cause confusion. Alcohol suppresses impulse control, judgment, and decision-making, while lowering inhibitions, dulling the brain's "alarm system," often leading to all sorts of erratic and otherwise inexplicable behavior.
Crushing damage is very different from chopping damage. I will assume the ME concluded crushing damage.
Without going into the grisly details, suffice it to say a commercial compactor can easily dismember a body, depending on position.
I have to go with Rachel on this. I just spent some time researching trash compactors in an effort to solve this riddle (crime?). There are (of course!) OSHA standards requiring guards. See OSHA standard summarized below:
“OSHA standard, 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(3)(ii) requires that, in the absence of applicable specific standards, a guard must be designed and constructed as to prevent the operator from having any part of his body in the danger zone during the operating cycle. Specifically, the OSHA standard requires that the vertical hydraulic downstroke/trash compactor must have a guard above the ram/piston if any part of the operator's body is exposed to the danger zone during the operating cycle.”
In other words, a person acting alone would not be able to enter the machine and still be able to operate it. In addition, I can’t imagine getting so drunk that I wandered into a different home, even if it had a similar appearance to mine, if my home were a “very considerable distance” away from my home. (But then, I can’t imagine getting so drunk that I would put on a twerking show on Facebook. No one would want to see that.)
My tentative hypothesis, to add more gruesomeness to this case, is that Ms. Montgomery was the victim of a rape/murder. She probably met a guy who talked her into accompanying her to his apartment, and disposed of the body via the trash compactor. The perp probably lives right in the same building where Ms. Montgomery was trashed, so to speak, since he apparently knew the location and operation of the compactor. Looks like the NYPD has made its mind on this case, so there will probably not be any further investigation. If there is, I’d certainly like to know the outcome.
I answered yes and I will tell you why. My husband had a friend, who was known to drink a little. One night he and a few friends went drinking on the roof of a very old high rise, a building probably built in the '20s. His companions left for home. He stayed. He went missing. His body was found in the boiler room where, it was surmised, he landed after somehow falling into the chimney.
Lynn, *I* like to drink a little. I have gotten rip-roaringly drunk in various parts of the civilized world (at least until I got there) and have behaved badly on occasion (although never badly enough to get a ride in a police car). I cannot fathom getting so drunk that I went on a roof and looked down a chimney and wondered "hey, where does this go, and can I fit?"....that's frightening!
We'll never know what he was thinking or if it was an accident. It was not a stretch to imagine him simply climbing up on the chimney and falling by accident. He engaged in a lot of reckless behavior, and pretty much always blind drunk, so the story surprised no one. He was very sweet and good natured. The story also made everyone sad.
And in all seriousness, I'm sorry for the loss of your husband's friend. That is no way to go.
Robin Williams on alcohol. He was hilarious!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BX6RrBtjwFI
Who cinched the bag?
The machine did. It's an automatic compactor that bags the trash automatically.
Well okay then. I haven’t seen that kind of compactor but I’m hardly an expert of them.
Seems like a good beginning for a mystery/police procedural book.
I've never lived in NYC, but I've seen trash chutes before, and they were never big enough to fit a full-size adult easily enough for someone to fall in accidentally.
Totally believable