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A body found stuffed in a suitcase in the woods on New York’s Long Island has been identified as a homeless woman who was reported missing last month.
Seikeya Jones, 31, was reported missing on August 16, according to the Suffolk County Police.
On September 3, police were called to an apartment complex on Nassau Road in Huntington Station after neighbors complained of a “rancid odor.” Jones’ remains were found inside the luggage found in the woods next to the apartment building, multiple local news outlets reported.
Her cause of death will be determined by an autopsy conducted by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office.
But investigators are still working to figure out what happened to her and no arrests have been made in connection to her death.
Neighbors recalled the foul odor.
“The police came and lifted it and saw it was a body,” one neighbor told WABC. “The smell was rancid. Potent. Something I’ve smelled before.”
One resident of the complex told the outlet that she heard a woman screaming around 3 a.m. on September 1. Another resident allegedly showed NBC New York video footage of Jones walking into the complex with an unidentified man last week.
Friends of Jones said she was a mother and had fallen on hard times in recent years.
Mary Waldron, who has known Jones since high school, described her as a positive person, who had "changed and kind of ended up on the streets."
“We called her Keya,” Waldron said. “She was a really sweet girl. She was always smiling. She was always happy. She did not deserve this.”
Police are requesting anyone with information to contact the department’s Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
