{"id":238589,"date":"2026-05-20T21:49:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238589\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:49:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:49:39","slug":"woman-who-fell-into-uncovered-manhole-in-midtown-manhattan-died-of-intense-heat-and-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238589\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who fell into uncovered manhole in Midtown Manhattan died of intense heat and trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donike Gocaj, the 56-year-old woman who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2026\/05\/19\/woman-steps-into-open-manhole-in-midtown-falls-to-her-death\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:was killed falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan,;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;was killed falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan,&quot;}\" class=\"link \">was killed falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan,<\/a> died as a result of the intense heat inside the manhole beneath the streets and trauma from the fall, according to the city\u2019s medical examiner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An autopsy revealed Gocaj\u2019s cause of death as a combination of scald burns with inhalational thermal injury and blunt force trauma of the torso, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Briarcliff Manor resident had just parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV on E. 52nd St. near the corner of Fifth Ave. before stepping out of her vehicle around 11:20 p.m. and into the open manhole a moment later, cops said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Con Edison said in a statement that it was still investigating, but that it appears a heavy truck rolling over the manhole cover may have dislodged it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Carlton Wood, 36, was on his way to work when he saw Gocaj fall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt was like she disappeared,\u201d said Wood. \u201cI saw her get out of her car, I seen her take a step forward, and then I didn\u2019t see her anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wood said he could hear Gocaj crying out from within the hole as passersby tried to save her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019m dying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donike Gocaj, the 56-year-old woman who was killed falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan, died as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[79168,92857,92851,75,84,83,7683,3412,9,24,63,92631],"class_list":["post-238589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-blunt-force-trauma","tag-carlton-wood","tag-donike-gocaj","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-medical-examiner","tag-midtown-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-open-manhole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}