Skeletal remains found at NYC construction site ID'd as ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protester missing for a decade

Authored by yahoo.com and submitted by Havvocck2

Skeletal remains found at a New York City construction site two years ago have been positively identified as a 19-year-old "Occupy Wall Street" protester who went missing in 2012.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is now asking the public for information regarding the death of Stevie Bates, who was reported missing in April 2012.

In 2020, during an excavation at 80-97 Cypress Avenue, Bates' skeletal remains were discovered.

New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner positively identified the remains as Bates on Friday.

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The gruesome discovery was made at a Queens construction site for a new apartment building. The NYPD lists her age as 28 and notes that she was homeless.

Her cause of death remains part of the ongoing investigation, police said. So far, her death is not considered a homicide.

Bates, who attended Hunter College, was deeply involved in the 2011 "Occupy Wall Street" movement, camping out with hundreds of others in Zuccotti Park for two months until police dispersed protesters in November of that year.

On April 27, 2012, Bates had borrowed a cell phone to call her mother from Yonkers, saying she was on a Greyhound bus layover in Pittsburgh, the New York Post reported.

Surveillance video shows her boarding the bus in Pittsburgh.

Her mother, Vivian Bates-Jones, told ABC Eyewitness News in 2021 that her daughter had later returned to New York and went to visit her boyfriend, who was squatting at a home in Queens.

The home is reportedly close to where the remains were found years later.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). All calls are strictly confidential, police said.

otter111a on September 19th, 2022 at 00:43 UTC »

It’s odd that they’re linking this to Occupy Wall Street in any fashion. Occupy Wall Street was broken up in November of 2011. In April 2012 she told her mother she was in Pittsburgh and surveillance video confirmed it. She then indicated she was returning to queens to visit her boyfriend. Her body was found at a construction site not too far away from his home.

Her remains were found in 2020.

divshappyhour on September 18th, 2022 at 20:48 UTC »

Feels weird that Occupy Wallstreet is over a decade old... Glad they found her, hopefully her family can find some peace soon.

lafayette0508 on September 18th, 2022 at 19:10 UTC »

So far, her death is not considered a homicide.

How else does a skeleton end up buried at a construction site?