Truck Likely Knocked Manhole Cover Loose Before Fatal Fall

A missing manhole cover in Midtown Manhattan may trace back to a heavy truck that rolled through the area minutes before a woman's deadly fall, according to Con Edison. Surveillance video reviewed by the utility company shows a multi-axle truck driving over the intersection of Fifth Avenue and East 52nd Street on Monday night; the company says the vehicle's weight appears to have knocked the cover loose, the Wall Street Journal reports. The cover was found about 15 feet away from the manhole opening, Gothamist reports.

Roughly 12 minutes later, around 11:20pm, 56-year-old Donike Gocaj parked nearby and subsequently fell into the uncovered shaft, police said. She was found unconscious and unresponsive and later pronounced dead at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "She wasn't distracted, she didn't walk onto a construction site, I mean, she parked her car, stepped out of her car and dropped right into the manhole," a witness tells ABC 7. "As soon as she stepped out, it's like she took one step forward and just disappeared." The medical examiner is investigating the exact cause of death, and no arrests have been made. Con Edison called the incident rare, noting that heavy vehicles can shift manhole covers, and said it is reviewing what happened.