Update: Police now describe the victim as a woman in her 20s. Click here for the latest.

By EDDIE D'ANNA and MAURA GRUNLUND



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There is an NYPD manhunt in Mariners Harbor Friday after a man seen wheeling a dead body on a dolly ditched the corpse on a lawn and fled, according to a police source.

An NYPD detective approached the suspect when he saw the man wheeling the corpse, covered in a cloth, on a metal dolly with wheels at around 7:10 a.m., the source said.

When approached by the detective, the suspect ditched the body in front of 42 Post Lane and fled the scene.

The corpse is described as an unidentified woman in her mid-20s.



He was pronounced dead by EMS at the scene, but there was no immediate information on whether there were any signs of trauma on the body.

A large number of cops, including NYPD helicopter units, are searching the area for the suspect.

The NYPD's Crime Scene unit and officials from the city medical examiner's office are on the scene investigating.