NYPD probing why cops missed body

NYPD internal affairs investigators are looking into why cops failed to discover a woman’s body inside a Bronx apartment after they struggled to arrest its occupant, a knife-wielding emotionally disturbed man.

Officers were called to an apartment on Ogden Ave. near W. 167th St. in Highbridge on April 30 after neighbors complained that Geza Hay, 46, a tenant with a mental health history, was acting out and screaming.

Hay met them at the door with a knife, sources said.

The cops backed away and called for Emergency Services Unit officers. When those officers arrived and entered the apartment they realized Hay had locked himself in a bedroom.

Police cut a hole through a wall to see if anyone else was inside. When it appeared he was alone, cops forced their way into the bedroom and Hay came at them with a knife, sources said.

Police blasted him with a Taser four times before they finally immobilized him. After the fourth jolt,

Hay dropped the knife and was arrested, sources said.

Amid the chaos, the officers failed to discover Norayshma Fernandez, 34, who was also in the apartment, wrapped in a blue and white comforter with a plastic bag over her head. The medical examiner ruled that she died of homicidal asphyxia.

Sources claim that cops searched the apartment and didn’t find anyone, apparently because Fernandez was under clothing, bedding and furniture that Hay apparently piled on top of her as police started to cut into the wall.

It was only after neighbors called 911 on May 7 to report a foul odor coming from the apartment did police discover the dead woman.

Police have not said why Fernandez, who lived a half-mile away on Sedgwick Ave., was in the apartment or how she knew Hay. She has been arrested before for prostitution, sources said.

None of the officers involved have been disciplined, sources said, but the investigation is not yet finished.

Hay was charged with assault on a police officer and ordered held on $100,000 bail.

Sources said Hay could soon be charged with Fernandez’s murder.

THEODORE PARISIENNE/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Body of Norayshma Fernandez, wrapped in a blanket and buried under piles of clothes, went undiscovered as cops handled a dispute in Bronx apartment.