New York Daily News

BEWILDERED

‘Bright kid’ with no hints of trouble or enemies

- With Thomas Tracy and Rocco Parascando­la

land who allegedly abused friends said.

“She told me he used to hit her but she never told me his name. We never really got into it. She would just shut down whenever it came up,” Cleveland, 26, recalled.

“I was obviously freaked out because that’s my friend. I didn’t want anyone putting their hands on her,” Cleveland said.

An NYPD spokesman said cops “were looking at several persons of interest in the case,” but didn’t know of a Long Island boyfriend.

Police sources said Odom had been living with another couple recently. Her mother said Odom was staying with different pals, including a roommate in Queens.

Last November, Odom celebrated her niece’s sixth birthday while bunking with a buddy at her elder her, sister’s building in Brownsvill­e.

“We really weren’t talking like we should’ve been, but she spent some time with my daughter, gave us some money and then left,” Aisha Odom said. “That was the last time I saw her and spoke to her.”

By the end of March, Odom was working security for a Long Island firm called FJC Security Services when her mother got the letter from the NYPD. FJC Security Services did not return phone calls for comment.

The young woman had interviewe­d to become a school safety agent two years before, police said, but never appeared for processing. Now the NYPD wanted to know if she was still interested. On April 1, Easter Sunday, Odom called her friend with a cryptic message. “She said, ‘I’m proud of you. Just know everything is OK with me,’” Thomas remembered. “It was a little strange but I just thought she was going through something minor.” Nine days later, Odom’s body showed up in Canarsie. Local dog walker Patricia Smith (inset) spotted the woman’s body — a torso without arms and legs — in a pile of leaves by a narrow pathway that winds through the park. Smith went down the same road with her Pekingese pup the evening before — but this time there was something different.

“I stopped and went back to get a closer look and it was a human torso with just a head on it. There was just flesh hanging off,” Smith, 52, said.

She franticall­y searched the park for someone, anyone, to validate what she saw. But there was no one around, so she sprinted home and called 911.

When the police arrived, Smith led them to her grisly discovery.

“I asked them, ‘Am I right? And he said, ‘You are,’” she said.

Investigat­ors later found Odom’s missing limbs in plastic bags scattered around the park.

“Every time I close my eyes, it’s there. It’s always there,” Smith wept.

A day later, Odom’s mother learned through news reports that the corpse had the word “chocolate” tattooed on the left breast. She knew then it was her daughter.

An aunt had given Odom that nickname as a baby because of her beautiful dark skin.

Thursday, Odom’s mother will face the terrible ordeal of her middle daughter’s funeral.

“I really cherished her ... To have lost her like this is just devastatin­g,” Nicole sighed.

She has no choice but to bury Brandy — but she refuses to bury the case.

“I’m still waiting for some type of closure. I don’t have any answers, no leads, nothing,” Nicole said. “When they catch the killer, then I’ll be at peace.”

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