NEW YORK — A woman who had been living in New York City’s Central Park was beaten to death with a stick, leaving friends and members of the park’s birding community grieving her loss and searching for answers.

The 63-year-old woman had been living in a gazebo in the Ramble area of Central Park, according to friends and parkgoers. They said she wore hiking gear, carried a backpack and walking stick, and had built a shelter using a tarp while keeping her belongings neatly tucked beneath a bench.

Friends said she was a familiar presence in the park and well-known among regular visitors.

“To people she’s a nobody but to us who were regular here, she’s a somebody,” said a friend of the victim.

One parkgoer, identified as Michael, remembered her fondly.

“She was very regal,” he said. “Like a professor. Like what happened to this person, why’s she here?”

Joe Lopez, who said he had been friends with the woman for 15 years, described her as more than just another face in the park.

“She not just a woman. She’s not random. She was a character. She was in charge of the bird feeders for a long time,” Lopez said.

Lopez said she was an artist and a fixture in the park’s birding community. Her talent was so unique that she was once profiled by the New York Times. One of many paintings Lopez purchased from her depicts Pale Male, the famous Central Park red-tailed hawk. He said the park became her primary residence after periods spent in and out of shelters.

“She wasn’t well. She would talk about conspiracies and that kind of stuff. However, she knew a lot about nature and animals,” Lopez said.

Police found the woman dead Sunday. Authorities said she was barefoot, her feet were covered in dirt and she had suffered head trauma.

Investigators arrested 36-year-old Jonathan Robles, whom they identified as a resident of a homeless shelter in Midtown. Police said he surrendered to detectives and is being evaluated at a hospital.

A friend of the victim said he saw the woman and her alleged assailant hours before the killing and believed the suspect had also been living in the gazebo.

“I never saw her fight anyone. Always soft spoken,” the friend said. “He was very nice, very well educated, very polite.”

Police have not publicly identified the victim because her family had not yet been notified. Robles was expected to be arraigned on Monday. Investigators are still working to determine a motive.

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