Remains of Missing 31-Year-Old Woman Found in Suitcase Outside Apartment Complex

The dead body of a missing New York woman has reportedly been found inside a suitcase.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department said they discovered the body of 31-year-old Seikeya Jones stuffed inside the luggage near an apartment building in Huntington on Tuesday, Sept. 3, according to NBC New York, WABC-TV and Huntington Now.

Suffolk County Police said they received a report of suspicious activity along Nassau Road around 11:50 a.m., per the outlets. When officers arrived on the scene, they found Jones’ body behind the apartment.

Authorities said the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy on the body to determine Jones’ cause of death, according to WABC-TV and NBC New York. The police are still investigating the incident.

Jones was reported missing on Aug. 16, according to a social media post from Suffolk County Police. She was described in the missing poster as 5’1 with brown eyes and brown hair, weighing about 131 lbs. According to the New York Post, police noted that she had last been seen near Fifth Avenue in Huntington Station.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the case.

Residents of the apartment building allegedly showed NBC New York footage of Jones walking into the apartment complex with an unidentified man last week. Another witness who lived at the apartment complex also told WABC-TV that she heard a woman screaming around 3 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1. 

Another neighbor recounted that when police removed the body, there had been a “rancid” smell that filled the area.

“The police came and lifted it and saw it was a body,” they told the outlet. “The smell was rancid. Potent. Something I’ve smelled before.”

Jones’ loved ones stopped by the area to pay tribute, including friend Mary Waldron, who described Jones as a positive person, who had “changed and kind of ended up on the streets.”

“We called her Keya,” Mary Waldron told reporters, per NC News York. “She was a really sweet girl. She was always smiling. She was always happy.”

Original Article