A chef who worked at a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan was found naked and strangled to death, police said. He was found the same day and in much the same condition as a former aide to Mayor Giuliani.

The body of David Webb, 44, a chef at the Benjamin Hotel on East 50th Street, was found inside the doorway of his home on Winthrop Street in New Rochelle, police there said. The discovery was made at about 3:30 a.m. Monday.

As police investigated the murder yesterday, officials in New York City said they did not believe Webb’s death was connected to the murder of Martín Barreto, a former assistant press secretary in the Giuliani administration, who worked at City Hall between 1994 and 1997. Barreto’s body was found naked and strangled inside his Greenwich Village apartment Monday night. No arrests have been made, police said.

In Webb’s case, police said an autopsy indicated he had been asphyxiated by strangulation. There were no signs of burglary or forced entry into the multi-family home where he lived, police said.

Neighbors on Winthrop Avenue, where Webb lived with two roommates, told the Journal News they were shocked by his death. “He never had problems with nobody,” a friend and neighbor, Kevin Johnson, said. “He wasn’t that kind of individual.”

Officials at the Benjamin Hotel declined to comment on the investigation. “The Benjamin Hotel is cooperating fully with the police in their investigation,” the general manager of the hotel, Thomas Chamberlain, told the Associated Press. “We’re deeply saddened by his death and extend our condolences to his family.”