After 2 Weeks, No Update on Teen Found Dead in Prospect Park Lake (Update)

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — More than two weeks after a 19-year-old was found dead in Prospect Park Lake, the teen's name and cause of death have yet to be released to the public. (Update: on Jan. 18, the day after this post was published, the NYPD released the name of the deceased individual to Patch. Here's our updated story. Our original story continues below.)

According to police, officers with the NYPD's 78th Precinct who were looking for an unrelated missing person found the teen, a male, unconscious in the lake at 6:50 p.m. on Jan. 2. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical responders.

Police said there were no signs of trauma to the teen's body, adding that the Medical Examiner's Office would investigate the cause of death.

However, on Jan. 17, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed that the teen's name had yet to be released, and said the department had no update on his cause of death.

Dr. Jason Graham, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner's Office, told Patch that "the cause and the manner of death in this case are both pending further studies," adding that "there's additional testing that has to be done."

Graham said he couldn't provide details on which specific tests were being performed, but added that "it's common in situations like this to do additional laboratory testing," such as running a toxicology report to determine what, if any, chemicals were in the deceased's body at the time of death.

Doing so, Graham said, can help provide information on both the cause, and the circumstances, surrounding an individual's passing.

[Editor's note: this post has been updated with additional information.]

Pictured at top: Prospect Park Lake. Image via Google Maps.