A decomposing body sat inside the chimney of a Queens public school — possibly for weeks — while students choked on the stench and administrators did nothing, until an exterminator opened the ash dump Tuesday morning and found a man's shoe, then a foot. That is the state of government-run schools in 2026: a corpse can rot inside the building and the institution doesn't even notice the smell.
The exterminator was called to P.S./I.S. 113 Anthony J. Pranzo in Glendale just before 9 a.m. by custodian Brendan Chavez, who had noticed a foul odor. When the pest control worker opened the ash dump, he found a shoe — size 9 or 10 — and then felt a foot inside, according to the New York Post. Chavez described the dead man as "definitely not a kid but an older gentleman with like a nine-inch foot." The exterminator who made the grisly find went home. "I guess it was too much for him," Chavez told AM New York.
Here is the part the establishment press mostly buried: students had been complaining about the reek for weeks. Twelve-year-old Ethan Xiao described the smell as "garbage water" and said he was "going to throw up." Fifteen-year-old Liliana Terranova told the Post she and her classmates noticed it "a few weeks ago at recess. It was really bad. Everyone was covering their nose." Weeks. Children were breathing in the stench of a decomposing human body at a public school, and not one adult in the building thought to investigate beyond calling pest control.
NBC News noted that Buildings Department records show recent permits for wiring, hot water heating, and other work at the school. Law enforcement sources said investigators are checking whether anyone involved in the construction was reported missing. But Merissa Terranova, a parent, asked the obvious question the bureaucrats won't: "If it was a construction worker, why wasn't a missing person's [alert] — nobody was looking for anyone?" She also told the Post that kids have been climbing the school's scaffolding at night to retrieve balls, and the 104th Precinct "never shows up." Security guards, she said, rarely leave their booth.
The city's Department of Education issued the kind of statement that makes you understand why nobody trusts these institutions: "This discovery is deeply upsetting and concerning, and we are making sure the right supports are in place for the entire school community while NYPD investigates." Supports. A man died in your chimney and you're offering "supports."
The school enrolls roughly 750 students from pre-K through eighth grade, according to NBC News. It was closed for summer break — Friday was the last day — so no children were in the building when the body was found. A small mercy in a story with very few.
The medical examiner will determine cause of death. No arrests have been made. The investigation continues. And a parent in Glendale is left wondering how a man can die inside a public school and sit there, decomposing, while children hold their noses at recess and the institution charged with their care notices nothing at all.
