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The police identified the dead man as César Mercado, 34, a senior consulate officer who had been working in New York for eight years and had been performing the duties of consul general.

Mr. Mercado’s body was discovered at 10:35 a.m. by his driver, who, detectives said, had arrived to pick him up.

He was lying just inside the entrance to his sixth-floor apartment, at 2070 Grand Concourse, near East 180th Street, in the Mount Hope neighborhood, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

“The door was unlocked” but was shut when the driver arrived, Mr. Browne said.

The driver, who was not identified, left the apartment and called the police, Mr. Browne said.

Detectives from the 46th Precinct found several knives in the apartment, he said. A 12-inch kitchen knife and a paring knife were found in the bathroom sink, along with a lot of blood, possibly indicating that the stabbing happened there and that Mr. Mercado collapsed as he approached his door.

The body had deep cuts to the neck and stab wounds in the abdomen, Mr. Browne said.

The police, along with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were seeking a motive for the killing, and no suspects had been identified.

Mr. Browne said that the apartment did not appear to have been ransacked, and that Mr. Mercado’s body was clothed.

Mr. Browne said Mr. Mercado had been seen by neighbors on Wednesday.

Some neighbors in the six-story tan-brick building, known as August Arms, said they recalled Mr. Mercado as being a nice person. No one, however, seemed familiar with his job.

One woman, Daisy Valle, 40, who has lived on the fifth floor for 16 years, said she was surprised that someone of Mr. Mercado’s stature was living there.