In Upper West Side Murder, Neighbor Sought by Police Is Said to Be Undergoing Psychiatric Evaluation

NEW YORK — The neighbor wanted for questioning in the killing of a 70-year-old woman who was slashed in the neck in her Upper West Side apartment is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The neighbor has not been publicly identified and is not in custody, but the police said she is a resident of the co-op building where Susan Trott was found dead in her apartment early Sunday.

“We have not had extensive conversations with the person of interest, but we will at some point in the future,” said Dermot Shea, the chief of detectives for the New York Police Department.

He said investigators had searched the neighbor’s apartment and “recovered some items of evidence related to the homicide.”

Shea said he did not know if the woman and Trott knew each other, but he said they were longtime residents who lived several floors apart.

Police found no signs of a break-in at the apartment, and have not described a motive.

The new information added a chilling twist to a grisly murder, with the building’s residents horrified to learn that a neighbor was being sought.

The prewar, red brick building on West End Avenue between 94th and 95th streets has 16 floors with 93 units. Trott, a longtime copywriter, lived alone on the 14th floor.

Trott was a neighborhood fixture, admired by friends for her free spirit, passion for animals and her creative work in the advertising world. But Trott’s eccentric character at times made her a divisive figure.

Her tendency to feed birds irked some neighbors, who said the seeds she scattered attracted rats to the quiet residential stretch designated by the city as one of the worst rat-infested blocks in New York.

Trott would wheel around sacks of bird food from her home to the section of Riverside Park with the Joan of Arc statue on 93rd Street, dumping seeds along the way, according to Aaron Biller, the president of Neighborhood in the 90s. She would sometimes feed them at midnight, Biller said.

“People would beg her, ‘Please don’t do this. You are feeding rats, not birds,'” Biller, 64, said. “No amount of reasoning would get her to stop.”

A longtime friend of Trott’s who declined to be identified in order to speak candidly, said Trott was harassed — verbally, physically and legally — by residents of the building.

“She was working with a lawyer about it,” the friend said. “He did tell me she had been pushed by a woman in the building. The board there has been harassing Sue for maybe 10 years.”

Stephanie Lee, who lives in the area and spoke with Trott often, said Trott confided in her a few weeks ago that she feared for her safety. As they walked their dogs one day, Lee told Trott she looked attractive and asked if she had lost some weight.

Lee recalled that Trott said: “Well, I don’t know. I shouldn’t look that good because I’m receiving so many threats. People really hate me.”

Lee said she shrugged off the comment as just talk.

“I told her, ‘I can’t imagine people threatening you with bodily harm and threats,'” Lee said.

Besides that day, Lee said Trott was always cheerful. She would often stroll her white pit bull in a baby carriage because he had trouble walking.

“You couldn’t miss her,” Lee said. “She was kind of from like a movie.”

Lee recalled a time she spotted Trott at Riverside Park, the bronze statue of the French heroine towering over her petite figure. Trott stretched her arms. Suddenly, four birds swooped in to perch, two on each arm.

“I never saw such a thing.”