A Brooklyn mom of four fell into an apartment trash compactor after leaving a bar and was crushed to death as residents heard her scream in terror, police sources said Friday.
Michelle Montgomery, 39 — whose remains were initially thought to have been chopped up and stuffed inside garbage bags at a Williamsburg housing complex — likely tumbled into the garbage chute while trying to retrieve her purse on Jan. 31, police sources said.
Montgomery was then heard shrieking inside the Borinquen Public Houses. She wasn’t located, however, and the compacting machine eventually crushed her alive and placed her body parts in a plastic bag along with building trash, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“We have numerous witnesses stating that they hear screaming coming from the second-floor chute. Our theory right now is that she may have dropped an item into the shoot and wanted to retrieve it, and fell headfirst into the chute,” Kenny said, adding her leather purse and ID were found at the scene.
“The [Medical Examine] investigation concluded that she was alive while she was in the compactor,” he added.
It wasn’t immediately clear why none of the people who heard her screaming helped her. They may have thought the yelling was coming from another part of the building, according to police.
Montgomery, of Gowanus, went with friends to a bar at around 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 and later walked into the Borinquen Public Houses, a building to which she had no apparent connection, police said.
After her nightmarish fall, her remains were discovered by NYCHA workers in a large bag that collects rubbish from the chute in the basement of the building at around 9:40 a.m. Feb. 1, according to cops.
The freak accident left her with broken ribs and deep slashes on her head and torso, along with wounds on her upper thigh and pelvis — all caused by the trash compactor, Kenny said.
There doesn’t appear to be a criminal element in her death, he said.
The compactor room at the housing complex is fed by a trash chute, into which residents drop bags of garbage. A larger black plastic bag then ingests all the smaller bags, which is how her remains ended up in a garbage bag, police sources said.
Montgomery lived at another NYCHA complex with her kids — including her 10-month-old son — less than four miles from where she died, said her husband, Anthony Echevarria, 37.
She also had two daughters, ages 11 and 12, as well as a 19-year-old son.
“It is [shocking] because she left this house alive, vibrant, happy with friends, and she never came back,” Echevarria told The Post earlier this month.
“I expected my wife to come back home.”