Stevie Bates, only 19 at the time, was reported by her family to be missing in April 2012. Several years later, her skeleton was found, buried under a construction site of a new apartment on Cypress Avenue near 59th Street in Ridgewood, Queens in New York City.
New York police are investigating the death of Bates, originally from Yonkers, who was an active participant of the 2011 “Occupy Wall Street” movement. She had been camping out in Zuccotti Park as part of the movement’s demonstrations, from September 2011 until November 2011, until the area was raided. Bates had been attending Hunter College when the demonstrations were occurring. She was reportedly homeless.
The deceased was last seen alive in person at 8 a.m. on April 12, 2012 leaving her sister’s home on Sterling Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Stevie contacted her family later in April 2012, when she was able to borrow a mobile phone to call her mother. She told her mother she was on a Greyhound bus in Pittsburgh. Her statements were consistent with the security footage at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Those images were probably the last traces of her. The website, findsteviebates.com, kept track of the case’s updates since 2012.
Her mother, Vivian Bates-Jones, said that Bates, who later went to Arkansas, came back to New York City, and was supposed to visit her boyfriend in Queens. She last spoke to her daughter on April 27, 2012.
The last known possible location of Bates was in Queens in 2012. What happened to her?
Her skeleton was excavated at the construction site in Queens on September 18, 2020, wrapped in a blanket. Her identity was confirmed by the Chief Medical Examiner of New York last Friday, two years after she was found.
Police are still investigating the cause of Bates’ death. While they were looking for clues about whether she was murdered, the police were able to acquire information from sources that it may have been a drug overdose.
Police are asking whoever has information regarding the case to contact them at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or send a message to Twitter account, @NYPDTips. Individuals with information may also call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
