A passerby rummaging through garbage early Wednesday made a grisly discovery in East Harlem – a dead woman stuffed inside a suitcase, police said.

A woman noticed a leg sticking out of the black suitcase which had been left on a sidewalk on E. 114th St. The discovery around 12:15 a.m. was across the street from Thomas Jefferson Park and down the street from Rao’s, a popular Italian restaurant.

The passerby opened the suitcase and then called 911.

The dead woman, described as black and between 25 to 35, had a head injury, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The dead woman was clothed. Police have not released her name.

The woman’s death was not immediately classified as a homicide, and the medical examiner will determine how she died.

Detectives are investigating the possibility the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped from a car onto the sidewalk, Kelly said.

The suitcase was found barely three blocks away from the E. 116th St. entrance to the FDR Drive, which would have allowed for a quick getaway.

Cops ask anyone with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers confidential tipline at (800)577-TIPS.