Police in the New York City borough of Queens are investigating the death of a former Franklin County woman who was found murdered in her own home Saturday morning.

According to police, Susan T. Woolf (formerly Susan Krenzke) was discovered shortly after 11 in the kitchen of her apartment at 43-35 10th St., Long Island City, N.Y., suffering from multiple stab wounds to her back and torso.

"Additionally, she had packing tape around her neck," said detective Cheryl Crispin, of the New York City Police Department's public information bureau.

According to police, Woolf, 49, was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene, a white brick building in an industrial area of the city.

Long Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens, an area of factories and aging industrial buildings.

Police say that friends of Woolf had been trying to contact her by telephone for a couple of days before she was found, but, getting no results they went to her home where they found her.

"There has been no arrest at this time and the investigation is ongoing," Crispin said.

An article Monday in the New York Daily News states that police are searching for Woolf's live-in boyfriend, Tigren Tambiev, as the lead suspect in her murder of the Queens artist.

According to the Daily News, Woolf had a restraining order out against Tambiev, and friends said they had a rocky relationship. The article reports that Woolf had given a friend keys to her Long Island City apartment, pleading, "If you don't hear from me, check on me."

Friends got worried after Woolf, a sculptor and installation artist, when she didn't show up for plans on Friday and Saturday. They found her body when they went to check on her.

Laura Krenzke Jordan, Woolf's sister, said that her family came to western Massachusetts when she and her sister were quite young.

"We lived first in West Springfield. Susan went to Northampton High School, but graduated from Woolman Hill Quaker School in Deerfield.

"She still has family and many friends in this area," she said.

During her senior year in high school, according to Jordan, Woolf focused on metal working and photography which she later used in her work as a professional artist in Boston and New York.

In addition to metal sculptures and jewelry, Woolf did what she called "Quiet Pieces," small art installations made of leaves and flower blossoms that she placed along city streets and in parks. The "Quiet" installations, according to her Web site, were designed to last only a few hours.

"As a public artist, I create site-specific sculptures reflecting my love of nature and fascination with debris. Constructed of bronze to last for ages, or a temporary piece filling cracks in the sidewalk with bright red leaves, I observe how a place joins or collides with environmental, visual and social patterns. I make sculptures describing place to accentuate the beauty in every location and build bridges between people and their surroundings" she said in a message on her Web site.

Jordan says that her sister was a "very adventurous and bold person."

"She traveled to China and Mongolia and other parts of Asia.

"She set a goal and kept working until she achieved that goal. And, she was not afraid of setting a goal that others would have considered impossible to achieve," she said.

Woolf's mother, Mary Ann Rugg, and sister still live in Franklin County.

"This is a terrible shock to all of her family and friends," Jordan said.

George Claxton can be reached at gclaxton@recorder.com.