Bystanders walk past one of the bags found in the Bronx this morning. (G.N.Miller/New York Post)
Police investigate one of the crime scenes in the Bronx near 823 Eagle Avenue. (G.N.Miller/New York Post)
A detective examines one of the bags. (G.N.Miller/New York Post)
The remains of a missing Bronx mom were found scattered around her neighborhood this morning — and cops are questioning the woman’s son in her death, law-enforcement sources said.
Sources identified the victim as 45-year-old home health aide Tanya Byrd, who went missing yesterday.
Police brought the son in after finding a bandsaw and gloves in the apartment, law-enforcement sources said. The apartment also reeked of bleach and the shower curtain was missing, the sources said.
The 23-year-old son, Bashid McLean, who had reported his mother missing, was led away in handcuffs this morning from the apartment he shared with his mom, neighbors said.
But the man’s aunt claimed Bashid had nothing to do with Byrd’s disappearance.
“[The cops] came over, asked him for a picture of his mother. He got frustrated. He [doesn’t] know where pictures of his mother are,” Byrd’s sister, Cassandra McLean said. “They thought he was being a problem.”
McLean, who lives in Washington DC, said her nephew being taken into custody was “crazy.”
Bashid told his aunt that an old boyfriend of Byrd’s dropped by their St. Mary’s Park Houses apartment yesterday — and that was the last time anyone saw her.
“He [the ex-boyfriend] came over yesterday and walked out with her in the morning, yesterday morning,” McLean said. “That’s what her son told me on the phone just now.”
Elizabeth Cruz, a neighbor and friend of Byrd’s, couldn’t believe the missing would willingly leave her 6-year-old son behind.
“Her young son … is very sick. He’s got Down’s Syndrome,” Cruz said. “He really needs her. He [doesn’t] talk. All he can say is, ‘Mommy, mommy!’ “
At least four travel and garbage bags were found scattered over several blocks in the Morrisania neighborhood, police and witnesses said.
Cops got a 911 call from a passerby at about 4:30 a.m., reporting a bloody roller bag at East 158th Street and Cauldwell Avenue — about a half-mile away from Byrd’s apartment, officials said.
A right leg was found on Eagle Avenue near 156th Street, while a torso was discovered on Eagle near 158th Street, witnesses said. A head was found at Cauldwell and 158th, according to witnesses.
“I saw the police find it. It was on top of the garbage, the recyclables. It looked like a female right leg,” said a 53-year-old witness at Eagle and 156th.
“It was in a plastic trash bag but that [plastic garbage bag] was in a traveler’s bag. That family is going to suffer, somebody is going to wake up without their mother.”
Cops have interviewed neighborhood witnesses who saw a car randomly dumping bags, according to a nearby building superintendent.
“That’s creepy, I don’t like it at all. It feels like some Freddy Krueger stuff,” the 49-year-old building super said. “The police said it was a woman.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick, Jessica Simeone and David K. Li