Sublet Roommates Missing After Nurse's Body Found Stuffed In Closet

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police say while the medical examiner does not yet have a clear cause of death, a murder investigation is underway after the body of nurse was found stuffed in the closet of her Brooklyn apartment and her two sublet roommates vanished.

The 58-year-old victim, identified as Kyimar Thein, was found wrapped in a blanket around 6:45 a.m. Saturday at her building on Lenox Road near Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn after police performed a welfare check.

It was unclear how long she had been dead.

Police said she had sublet a room to a man and a woman who have not been seen in the area since the body was discovered. Authorities say they have the identities of the couple and are searching for them.

"It's sad, sad, sad - I couldn't go to work since that day, saddened," said neighbor Dorrett Levy.

Friends say Thien was kind and helpful and worked as a nurse a block away from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Thein joined Downstate in 2006 as a nurse in the Medical-Surgical/Telemetry Unit, mostly working the night shift, according to Dawn S. Walker, Associate Vice President of Communications & Marketing.

When Thein didn't show up for her shifts over a few days, friends became concerned. A neighbor down the hall, scared to appear on camera, says she may have been one of the last people to see her on Tuesday night.

"We walked in the building, she said she was tired," the neighbor said. "She was going to sleep... She went her way, I went my way."

Friends told CBS2 Thein often subletted her place to coworkers, most recently to a younger employee who was staying there with a boyfriend.

"I think there were some problems with the boyfriend," said a neighbor. "So that might've been an issue along with the girlfriend."

Detectives say that man and woman are now their prime suspects, though so far police say they have no motive.

In:
• East Flatbush
• Brooklyn