Joaquin Velez, a longtime resident of 527 E. 12th St., was found dead of a heart attack in his fourth-floor apartment last Tues., Jan. 26. Velez, who may have been in his late 50s, worked for UPS, at Spring and Washington Sts., and may have also more recently worked in a restaurant.
An East Village plumber told The Villager he had been called to the building 10 days earlier due to an odor that a neighbor living about the apartment smelled. The smell wasn’t coming out the front door, though. People thought it might have been a dead mouse or rat.
But the odor grew worse, and someone thought it was gas, and he was called again. This time, police entered the apartment, and found Velez dead in bed.
“The medical examiner said he had been dead more than four weeks,” said the plumber, who requested anonymity.
Julie Bolcer, spokesperson for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said the cause of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
Velez lived alone.
“He was a quiet man,” the plumber said. “If you put something in your newspaper, then maybe people will know what happened to him.”
Lincoln Anderson
