Body is found stuffed in suitcase by North Carolina river just 10 miles from where pregnant woman, 28, went missing a week ago
A body has been found in a suitcase alongside a river in North Carolina near where a pregnant woman was reported missing last week.
The female corpse was spotted by a passerby on Monday morning near the Neuse River Trail in Raleigh, the Wake County Sheriff's Office said.
Police have not disclosed the identity of the victim but said it's possible she is 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith, who disappeared about 10 miles away in Wendell on February 2.
Smith's family was at the scene where the suitcase was found, ABC11 reported.
A woman's body was found in a found in a suitcase alongside a river in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday morning, near where Brittany Samone Smith (left and right) was reported missing last week. Police have not confirmed the identity of the victim but said it's possible she is Smith, who was described as 'noticeably pregnant'
The female corpse was spotted by a passerby on Monday morning near the Neuse River Trail in Raleigh. Deputies with the Wake County Sheriff's Office are pictured at the scene
The case is being treated as a homicide, according to Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker, who told reporters that it's 'safe to say this was no accident'.
An autopsy is underway to confirm the woman's identity and cause of death.
'We're getting ready to confirm the woman's ,' Baker told reporters at the scene on Monday.
'I can't sit here and tell you that's what's in there right now. We have not gotten to that point. We have information to believe it.'
'It's not every day, it's not every morning, that you find what could be a person's body in a suitcase, in a river,' he added.
Police had put out an alert asking for the public's help in locating Smith on Saturday, four days after she was last seen in Wendell
An aerial view shows detectives on the scene where the woman's body was found on Monday. ABC11 reported that Smith's family was also at the scene
Police had put out an alert asking for the public's help in locating Smith on Saturday, four days after she was last seen in Wendell.
WRAL reported that neighbors said Smith had been living in a tent with her boyfriend in the 200 block of Fox Run Drive. WXII 12 News also published photos of the tent.
Smith was described as being 4'11" tall, about 115 pounds and 'noticeably pregnant'.
Baker hinted that investigators suspect Smith may be the victim in the suitcase on Monday.
'If this is, in fact, this young lady that we've been looking for all weekend, someone is responsible for that,' he said.
The sheriff also said there is a 'person of interest' detectives want to speak with.
'We're going to work very hard. We're going to find out who was responsible. I can tell you that. Because these things just don't happen. Someone is responsible.'
A home on the block where Smith was last seen is shown with caution tape around it in footage from WXII 12 News
WRAL reported that neighbors said Smith had been living in a tent with her boyfriend in the 200 block of Fox Run Drive. WXII 12 News also published photos of the tent