A pregnant internet star was found dead in a desolate part of the Bronx early Tuesday — with no pants and in possession of cocaine — in a suspected drug overdose, authorities said.
Lyric McHenry, a Stanford University alum who had worked on a reality show with hoop star Magic Johnson’s son, was found sprawled out on the sidewalk above the Major Deegan Expressway at Undercliff Ave. and Boscobel Place in Highbridge at about 5 a.m.
McHenry, who was 20 weeks pregnant, was dressed in a pajama top and no pants, although she was wearing underwear, police said. Her knees were bruised, but there were no other visible injuries, sources said.
A small ziplock bag containing cocaine was found on her, according to police sources, leading them to suspect she suffered a drug overdose.
McHenry was rushed to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, where she died. Police were investigating whether she was dumped on the sidewalk.
Just hours before she was discovered, McHenry posted videos on Instagram while partying at the Frederick Hotel, the SoHo Grand and Dream Downtown in lower Manhattan.
The final clip shows her blowing a kiss to the camera about 1 a.m., with her arm around a young man, as the city skyline sparkled in the background. “It’s your birthday,” the man says.
McHenry turned 26 on Aug. 6. An autopsy was scheduled to determine her cause of death.
“This is so devastating. She just was such an amazing person. She’s one of my best friends from college. She was special, and she made others feel special,” Maya Humes, who attended Stanford with McHenry, told the Daily News.
“She’s such an incredible human being. She was so smart and one of the most caring friends you can imagine. She was just always the person to pick up the phone and check in. She never hesitated to Facetime you and always, always wanted to put other people first, asking them questions about themselves, learning about them, making people feel loved,” Humes, 26, said through tears.
A Bronx resident who lives close to the site where McHenry was found questioned how she ended up there in the first place.
“She shouldn’t have been on this block at nighttime,” said George Smith. “I’m a man, and I wouldn’t walk down here by myself. That’s a fact.”
In 2016, McHenry and her sister Maya produced a show with reality-TV star EJ Johnson.
The show, titled “EJNYC,” lasted for one season on the E! cable network and focused on the fashion industry, the jet-setting lives of its cast members and socially conscious issues.
“She was an amazing friend, so fantastic. I’m absolutely heartbroken,” an EJNYC cast member told The News on Tuesday, speaking on the condition that she wasn’t named. “I’m going to be grieving with the family.”
When the show ended, McHenry went on to work as an associate producer for Complex Networks before becoming a freelance writer and producer in 2017.
Her father, Doug McHenry produced such Hollywood films as “Krush Groove,” “New Jack City” and produced and directed “Jason’s Lyric.”
At the age of 15, she worked on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, according to her Instagram account.
“Working for this campaign made my awkward stage at 15 so much doper,” she wrote on Instagram alongside of photo of her standing next to First Lady Michelle Obama.
McHenry was later selected to be a member of the Ron Brown Scholar Program, which provides college scholarships to black students who excel in the classroom and in serving their communities.
Her profile for the program describes her as an “extremely passionate history and English student with interests varying from Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy to South African writer J.M. Coetzee.”
In 2017, she posted on online tribute to a close friend who passed away.
“My heart is broken but my dreams prevail because you always told me they were possible,” McHenry wrote on Instagram.
“You were the most optimistic person I knew, because you made being a realist so beautifully infinite.”
With Nancy Dillon in Los Angeles
