NYPD seeks clues about remains of missing Westchester woman found in Queens two years ago

A skeleton found at a construction site two years ago belonged to a 19-year-old woman who was missing for more than a decade — and police said Saturday they were looking for clues about her death.

A construction crew excavating the site of a new apartment building on Cypress Ave. near 59th St. in Ridgewood, Queens found the bones wrapped in a blanket on Sept. 18, 2020, cops said.

The work site was near Mount Judah Cemetery, so police first suspected the remains were interred there at some point.

The city Medical Examiner determined that the bones belonged to Stevie Bates, a young Yonkers woman who went missing in April 2012.

Bates’ relatives were told that her body had been found last year.

Her mother, Vivian Bates-Jones, told ABC Eyewitness News in 2021 that her daughter had just returned home after a cross-country trip and was going to visit her boyfriend at a Queens home he was squatting in when she disappeared. The home was near the spot where she was found.

Cops searching for Bates recovered surveillance footage of the teen leaving the Port Authority Bus Terminal following her trip in 2012.

“She was an amazing person and no one should have taken her from us,” Bates-Jones told Eyewitness News.

It was not immediately clear what Bates died of, although detectives suspect it was a drug overdose, a police source with knowledge of the case said.

So far, the case is not being considered a homicide.

“The cause of death remains part of the investigation,” an NYPD spokesman said.

It’s suspected that Bates’ boyfriend or someone she knew buried her body.

Cops on Saturday released pictures of Bates in the hopes someone recognizes her and may know something about the hours before her death.

“There is little to no evidence to make an arrest or even question the potential suspect,” Bates-Jones said on a GoFundMe page that helped pay for funeral costs. “Justice for Stevie will depend on someone coming forward and telling what they know.”

A story in the Daily News at the time of Bates’ disappearance said she was heavily involved in the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, living in a tent in Zuccotti Park from September of that year until the camp was raided in November.

Bates attended Hunter College, and was interested in studying architecture.

Anyone with information with information about what happened to Bates is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.