Officers responded to a 911 call around 9:43 a.m. And found the woman unconscious with trauma to her head. Emergency workers pronounced her dead at the scene. People who knew her described her as a familiar face among the park's birders and others who spend their time there.
That evening, police arrested 36-year-old Jonathan Robles and charged him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the NYPD.
The Ramble draws a loyal crowd of birdwatchers and park regulars who treat it as a kind of second home. Lee's death has rattled that tight community. For people who saw her often enough to know her but not enough to know her last name, the loss lands somewhere between grief for a friend and grief for a stranger who still mattered.
Police have not released additional details on what led to the attack, leaving the birders who remember her with more questions than answers about how violence found its way into a corner of the park they thought they knew.