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A New York City taxi cab driver discovered a passenger believed to be drunk and unconscious was actually dead in his backseat this week.
The New York Police Department is investigating a possible homicide after the woman, whose name has not been released, was taken to New York Presbyterian Queens hospital and discovered to have burns on her face and chest early Wednesday (August 18), sources told the New York Daily News.
NYPD was notified about the incident at around 5:49 a.m. when the department received a report of a dead 31-year-old woman being brought to the hospital's emergency room by her friend.
The friend, who lives in Queens, received a call earlier on Wednesday morning notifying her that the 31-year-old woman was drunk and needed to take a cab home.
The friend called a cab for the woman to be brought to her home, according to sources.
Investigators believe the woman was loaded into a taxi by four men on Division Street near Ludlow Street, sources told the Daily News.
The cab driver took the woman to her home in Flushing and, upon arrival, her friend realized the 31-year-old was unconscious.
The victim's friend asked the driver to bring the woman to the emergency room at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The New York City medical examiner is working on the case and will determine the woman's cause of death.