Investigation after body found buried in Crown Heights backyard

CROWN HEIGHTS (WABC) -- An investigation is underway after a body was found buried in the backyard of a home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Police got a search warrant for the home and arrived at the house Thursday afternoon. The body they found will be tested by the medical examiner Friday.

It's believed 44-year old Oswald Lewis led investigators to the home on St. John's Place. Investigators believe the man they found was murdered and buried there in the 1990's.

St. John's Place is lined with lovely brownstones and a canopy of trees and 657 seems no different than any other home here. Or didn't, until they found a body buried in back.

"I mean, bodies buried in the back yard? That's creepy," a neighbor said.

Investigators haven't said much about the victim, but Oswald Lewis is proving to be a big help.

Lewis was arrested in August in Queens on outstanding drug charges dating back to the '90's.

Before he was arrested, he got into a shootout with members of the DEA and U.S. Marshal's office. Lewis was struck, but he survived.

Since his recovery, Lewis has been talking to investigators and he told them about the buried body.

A neighbor took pictures of the NYPD digging in the backyard after they got the tip that the victim of a decade-old, unsolved murder was buried back there.

Within hours of digging, they found what the Medical Examiner confirmed to be human remains.

"That's creepy, that's very creepy because you never smelled anything, just normal like a regular backyard," said neighbor Sade Robinson.

"Skeletons in the closet you know, it takes you back to those days it was gun smoke, you know every day somebody was going down on the corner getting shot," said Walter Herring, a resident.

It's all changed now, but this was a troubled area back in the early 1990's, when residents talked sometimes about the home, quietly. Neighbors called it a speakeasy, a place known for late night wild parties and around the clock drug activity.

"People in and out at different hours of the night," said neighbor Bonita Fitchett.

"There were rumors, but you don't feed into them, it becomes gossip, someone that's known for running their mouth. In the neighborhood at that time it wasn't a good thing," Herring said.

Nelson lives there now, and he was as surprised as anyone to see his home filled with police.

"I just came back to get my stuff and they told me I couldn't get back in. So that's why I came back and they're still here. Nobody told me what was going on," he said.

The current owners of the home are not involved and there are no arrests.

The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.

The investigation is ongoing.