Dead mother, 35, found Friday in a plastic container along an expressway near Yankee Stadium

The body of a 35-year-old East Harlem beautician and mother was found decomposing inside a plastic container on a Bronx sidewalk on Friday afternoon, just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium.

Nissa Walcott of East Harlem, mother to a 15-year-old son, had been reported missing by a relative on February 16, a week before her body was found, police said. The New York City Medical Examiner has yet to determine her cause of death, and a NYPD investigation is ongoing.

The man who made the grisly discovery, who frequents the site across from 950 University Avenue along the Deegan Expressway to find and resell items dumped there by people using the self-storage facility there, contacted police around 2 p.m. 

He noticed a dresser that had been abandoned there around 11 a.m. and came back in the afternoon to retrieve it. A foul odor drew his attention and he saw a human foot jutting from a plastic container that he said hadn’t been there earlier, WABC-TV reported.

Nissa Walcott, 35, was a beautician who friends said ‘did everything for her [15-year-old] son.’ Her body was found in a plastic container off the Deegan Expressway in Melrose, just blocks from Yankee Stadium

Walcott’s friend characterized her as a ‘beautiful person’ and a ‘single mother and entrepreneur who worked hard’

NYPD officers are pictures transporting Walcott’s corpse in a body bag at the scene

The man who discovered Walcott’s body noticed a dresser that had been abandoned there around 11 am on Friday, and came back in the afternoon to retrieve it. A foul odor drew his attention to a human foot jutting from a plastic container that he said hadn’t been there earlier

It was unclear how long her body went undetected, but police sources told NBC New York that it had begun to decompose. The bin containing Walcott’s body did not appear to be connected to the storage facility.

It is commonplace for furniture and trash to line that sidewalk, neighbors told outlets – but after Friday, they want that dumping to stop. 

Stephanie Nunez, who neighbors the Melrose site, said that her father had parked alongside the dresser moments earlier. 

‘He just got out of the car and didn’t notice anything,’ Nunez said. 

Another neighbor, who identified herself as DeeDee, told reporters that ‘this is crazy.’

‘It was a woman found, decomposed. I am a woman – a single, black woman at that, and I have children,’ she said.  

Walcott’s aunt, Bernadette Butler Colon, implored anyone with knowledge of her niece’s whereabouts to come forward in a Friday Facebook post just hours before the body was uncovered

Norma Menedez, Walcott’s friend of 15 years who employed her at the Live on Lexington barber shop, told the New York Daily News on Friday night that she ‘has no idea who would do something so cruel to her’

Norma Menedez, Walcott’s friend of 15 years who employed her at the Live on Lexington barber shop, told the New York Daily News on Friday night that ‘this is something you read about on the milk carton or watch on SVU.’

‘This is not reality. She had a family who loves her,’ she told the outlet.  

‘She was a beautiful person. She had a lot of life. She was an entrepreneur. She was a nice person. She was a great woman.’ 

Walcott’s aunt, Bernadette Butler Colon, implored anyone with knowledge of her niece’s whereabouts to come forward in a Friday Facebook post just hours before the body was uncovered. 

‘This is my niece Nisaa Walcott. She has been missing for a week now,’ Colon wrote. 

‘She has a wonderful son and a host of family and friends awaiting her safe return home. This is strange as she would never abandon her beloved son.’ 

Menedez told the Daily News that ‘everything [Walcott] did was for her son’

Menedez told the Daily News that ‘everything she did was for her son.’

‘She was a great mother. She was always there for him,’ she said. ‘We have no idea who would do something so cruel to her. ‘

Another friend, Luz Droz, told NBC New York that Walcott ‘didn’t deserve this.’

‘She was a beautiful person, hard worker, she was a single mother, she was an entrepreneur she worked hard,’ Droz said.