Man Accused of Sexually Abusing Corpse on N.Y.C. Subway Train

The New York City Police Department is looking for a man whom they believe sexually abused a corpse while on the subway.

Police said the incident occurred on Wednesday, April 9 just after midnight aboard a southbound R train in the vicinity of the Whitehall Street station in Lower Manhattan.

The victim boarded the train around 8 p.m. and the suspect got on the subway at Whitehall Street station around 11 p.m., an official told the New York Times. The victim appeared to have died prior to the incident, a police source confirmed to PEOPLE. His death is believed to have been natural, ABC7 reported.

The suspect searched the dead man’s pockets before sexually assaulting him, the official told the Times.

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“The unidentified individual had sexual contact with an unconscious and unresponsive adult male” and then fled on foot, the police department said in a press release.

Police have asked the public to be on the lookout for the man who was wearing a blue baseball cap, black hooded jacket, a yellow hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, red and white sneakers and carrying a black backpack.

Police later said in a release that a different person, a woman, is suspected of stealing property from the dead man before fleeing a little over an hour before the alleged sexual assault. The woman was last seen wearing a yellow hoodie, black pants and a black baseball cap.