A homeless man was found dead in a wooded area near a Freeport village day laborer hiring site on Sunday morning, New York State police said.
The body of Jose Garrido-Lobo was discovered at 11:28 a.m. by two friends who had been drinking with him the night before in the woods north of Sunrise Highway, just west of the Meadowbrook State Parkway, police said.
Police do not suspect foul play and the Nassau medical examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine the 33-year-old man’s cause of death, authorities said.
“He lived over there all winter,” Fernando, a fellow day laborer, told the Press. “He’s a good guy.”
Fernando, who declined to give his last name, described Garrido-Lobo as a father of four from Honduras who was generally quiet and sometimes joined fellow day laborers in soccer games while waiting for work.
He said the man was nicknamed “El Cantante,” Spanish for “The Singer,” because he would launch into song when he was drinking.
Garrido-Lobo’s makeshift campsite was a short walk from the hiring site in a parking lot on Bennington Avenue and separated by a state Department of Transportation equipment yard.
He is one of countless others believed to be living in the surrounding woodlands bordering the parkway.
