Queens detectives are trying to determine if the badly decomposed remains of a young woman, found in the attic of a Richmond Hill home on August 4, are linked to a cryptic suicide note left by a tenant who hanged himself at the home last month.
Law enforcement sources said the unidentified woman had been stabbed 22 times in the neck and torso before her body was stashed in the attic of the home.
Police are seeking help from the public to identify the young woman, who was 5-feet, 6-inches to 5-feet, 8-inches tall and had numerous tattoos on her body.
The woman had the words, “Danny and Evelyn” tattooed on her left wrist and another tattoo of a butterfly and an angel, police sources said.
Police are checking Missing Persons reports in an attempt to identify the woman, but there have been no matches, the sources said.
Cops said Devendea Autar scrawled the words, “I’m going to hell for what I did,” on a sheet of paper before he hanged himself on July 21, in the room he rented in the ramshackle three-family home on the Van Wyck Expressway.
Autar’s relatives found his body – and the note, when they went to check on him on July 21, police said. Family members didn’t return to the home until August 4, when Autar’s police officer-brother went to pack up his brother’s belongings, police said.
Devchand Autar, 34, a nine-year NYPD veteran assigned to the 111th Precinct in Bayside, was cleaning out the apartment on August 4 when he was overwhelmed by a stench in the attic, police said.
Autar went to the attic and followed the smell to a large object, wrapped in plastic and stuffed inside a plastic container. He called police, who opened the bag and found the badly decomposed remains.
Police sources said the remains appeared to be those of a young woman who had been dead for weeks and had apparently died around the time of Devendea Autar’s suicide.
The city Medical Examiner’s office removed the remains on Saturday night and an NYPD Crime Scene crew started scouring the scene moments later, police sources said.
Investigators at the city Medical Examiner’s office are performing tests to determine if the remains are human, police sources said. If investigators determine the remains are human, they will try to find the cause of death, identity and approximate when the victim died, the sources said.
Family members and neighbors said they often saw a woman at Autar’s home, but she had not been seen for at least two months.
Neighbors said Autar had changed dramatically in the weeks before his suicide, acting standoffish and no longer greeting neighbors.
“He was basically a nice guy,” a next-door neighbor told the Gazette. “He had friends over all the time and you could smell the scent of marijuana coming from inside,” the neighbor said.
“He was a normal guy who waved hello and stopped to talk,” the neighbor said, “Then all of a sudden he walked past everyone without even saying hello.”
Police sources said Autar was a driver for an Access-A-Ride van, but he had lost that job at leas a year ago.
Sources said NYPD investigators believe the suicide note was Autar’s way of explaining what he had done – but not why he did it.
“The guy was apparently trying to clear his conscience before he took his life,” the sources said.
Police are urging anyone who recognizes the tattoos  on the victim’s body, or who knows of a young woman who has been missing for several months to call the Crime Stoppers HOTLINE at 1-800-577-TIPS.