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Man To Be Questioned After Woman's Body Found In Midwood Home

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police want to question a hospitalized man following the discovery of a woman's decaying body in a Brooklyn home.

Police were called to a basement apartment at 1315 Avenue N in Midwood around 9:30 p.m. Monday on reports of a foul odor.

In a bedroom, they found the severely decomposed body of a 57-year-old woman with head trauma and multiple stab wounds to her back, police said.

She likely had been dead for weeks, police said.

Man To Be Questioned After Woman's Body Found In Midwood Home

A note, believed to be from the woman's common-law husband, was found at the scene which said in essence that "she was trying to cast a spell" over him, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.

Neighbors said the couple was new to the area and kept to themselves for the most part, but some said they occasionally heard yelling coming from inside their apartment.

"You heard them whenever you went by the house," neighbor Moshe Handler said. "In particular he used to scream at her, 'Now you're going to get it.'"

Police said the man who lives in the apartment is in the hospital being treated for an undisclosed condition, and while they aren't identifying him as an official suspect, investigators said they want to talk to him as soon as possible, CBS 2's Kathryn Brown reported.

The violence has shocked the quiet community.

"It's a very Orthodox Jewish community, very tight knit and everybody keeps an eye on one another," neighbor Michael Wright said. "It's kind of hard to have a murder right here."

"It's definitely very unusual for this neighborhood, it doesn't normally happen," one neighbor said.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in this neighborhood, I've been living her all my life and it's just totally shocking," another neighbor said.

The victim's identity has not been released.

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