An exterminator found a rotting corpse wedged in the chimney of a Queens public school Tuesday morning after he was called to investigate a putrid odor, cops and sources said.
The pest control worker made the grisly discovery just before 9 a.m. when a janitor called him to P.S./I.S. 113 Anthony J. Pranzo at 87 Street and 78 Avenue in Glendale to investigate the stench, according to authorities and law enforcement sources.
The exterminator opened the ash dump and found a shoe, then felt a foot inside, the sources said.
The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit is in the process of removing the male body, the sources said.
An exterminator found a rotting corpse in the chimney of P.S./I.S. 113 Anthony J. Pranzo in Queens. Peter Gerber
The city medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death, cops said.
It was not immediately clear how long the body had been stuck inside the smokestack — but students said the rancid smell had been in the air for weeks.
Ethan Xiao, 12, described the smell as “garbage water.”
“It was like smelling something funky. I was going to throw up or something” he said.
Liliana Terranova, 15, said she and her classmates noticed it “a few weeks ago at recess.”
“It was really bad. Everyone was covering their nose,” she said.
Brendan Chavez, the custodian who called pest control, said he was with the the exterminator when they made the shocking discovery and found the shoe, which was a size 9 or 10.
“I had a smell, the pest guy came in,” Chavez said. “He opened it up, looked at it. He was the one who really found it first.”
Law enforcement sources said there has been construction work at the school recently, and investigators are looking to determine whether anyone involved in the repairs was recently reported missing.
Some parents, however, question how a worker could go missing without raising alarm bells.
“If it was a construction worker, why wasn’t a missing person’s [alert] — nobody was looking for anyone?” asked Liliana’s mother, Merissa Terranova, 43.
“It’s disturbing.”
The mom says the school has had a recurring problem of kids scaling the scaffolding of the building to retrieve balls that get stuck on top.
“There’s been calls. Kids were climbing the scaffolding at night. The 104 never shows up. It’s a problem right now,” Terranova said, adding that the security guards rarely leave their booth to patrol.
“He is supposed to be in there, but anytime I pass, there’s nobody there.”
No students or staffers – besides the janitor – were in the building at the time because school is out for the summer, cops and sources said.
