Missing Tattoo Artist Found Dead in N.Y.C. Near Where He Was Last Seen 6 Months Ago: 'There the Whole Time'
Drexyll Tolstoy, 27, went missing in late September after leaving his job at a local tattoo parlor
A missing tattoo artist has been found dead near where he was last seen nearly six months ago.
Drexyll Tolstoy's body was discovered April 3 behind a building at 39 W. 32nd St. in New York City, according to The New York Daily News and WestSideRag.com.
The 27-year-old was found "with injuries indicative of falling from an elevated position," a spokesperson for the New York Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
Drexyll's mother Kellie Tolstoy told the Daily News that the 17-story commercial building is home to the tattoo parlor where her son worked prior to his death.
"How was he found right there? He was there the whole time," she told the Daily News on Saturday. "He's been laying there for six months."
Police originally said Drexyll was last seen on Sept. 25 near West 106th Street and Columbus Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side, according to CW affiliate WPIX.
However, police later uncovered surveillance footage from a nearby hotel that showed Drexyll at his place of work near W. 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue later that evening, per the Daily News.
Drexyll had left his job at the tattoo parlor, Black Fish Tattoo, shortly before he was reported missing in September, per ABC affiliate WABC-TV.
He was living on the Upper West Side at the time of his disappearance.
Kristian Gonzalez, 27, previously told the Daily News that her boyfriend of 10 years was planning to see the movie Bullet Train the night he was last seen.
"He told me that he was at the movies around 9 or so, and that was the last I heard of him," Gonzalez told the outlet. However, police said there was no showing of the film at that time.
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Gonzalez reported her boyfriend missing the following morning after noticing he did not report to work, per the report.
Drexyll was on medications for his mood, and had switched his medication the week prior to his disappearance, Kellie told the Daily News. She said her son had struggled with relationship issues and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kellie had called her son the night of Sept. 25 to check in on how he was adjusting to the new medication, per the report. During the conversation, Drexyll said he "couldn't go back" to the apartment he shared with Gonzalez on the Upper West Side.
In December, Drexyll's family traveled to N.Y.C. to search for their missing loved one, but were unsuccessful at that time, according to WPIX and WABC-TV.
Four months later, Drexyll's body was found not far from where he was last seen.
"It shouldn't take six months to find someone hundreds of feet away from where they disappeared," Kellie wrote in an update on the family's GoFundMe campaign, which was started in hopes of locating the missing man.
The cause of Drexyll's death has not been revealed.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
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