The death of a 73-year-old man whose body was found Wednesday in a large trash bin in east Denver is being investigated as a homicide.
Police have identified the victim as Gerald Schwartzman of Denver. Police are waiting for the results of an autopsy to help determine the exact cause and manner of death but said that it appears he was shot.
Schwartzman’s ex-wife said Thursday that he had been living in Denver since 2001 and had been renting a house with his nephew in the 600 block of Clermont Street, about eight blocks from where his body was found.
At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers received reports of a body in a trash bin in an alley between Grape Street and Hudson Street near East 13th Avenue.
They found Schwartzman dead at the scene, with an apparent gunshot wound.
Investigators originally called the case a “suspicious death,” but it’s now a homicide investigation, Sonny Jackson, spokesman for the Denver Police Department, said Thursday.
A former Denver Post staff member, who is not being named because the suspect is at large, was taking out the garbage Wednesday afternoon when she noticed something odd sticking out of the trash.
“And then I saw a hand,” she said Thursday. “I wanted to run, but I knew I had to see if this person was alive, so I glimpsed in there.”
The man’s back was against the wall of the trash bin, and there was blood on the man’s right shoulder and forehead, she said.
She then raced to call 911.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794 or jsteffen@denverpost.com
