Body found in suitcase along Neuse River in Wake County
The Wake County Sheriff’s office said Monday it is “not prepared to confirm” that a body found in a suitcase by the shoreline of the Neuse River is that of a pregnant woman reported missing last week.
Raleigh police contacted the Sheriff’s Office at 10:40 a.m. after a witness reported a body had been found along a section of the Neuse River Trail, near Allen Drive, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Eric Curry.
“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,” Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker told ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner, on Monday.
The case is being investigated as a homicide, Curry wrote in a news release.
He declined to provide additional information, including whether the body was that of a man or a woman.
Investigators could not identify the body and will wait for an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner’s Office before releasing further details, Curry wrote.
Pregnant woman missing
On Sunday, the Sheriff’s Office announced it was searching for 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith, who was reported missing Thursday, The N&O reported. She was last seen around Fox Run Drive in Wendell.
Officials are still gathering evidence, speaking with Smith’s family members, some of whom showed up at the scene Monday, and taking other actions, Curry said.
A weekend news release described Smith as 4 feet 11 inches tall, 115 pounds and “noticeably pregnant.”
“We’re going to find out who’s responsible, I can tell you that,” Baker told media outlets at the scene, ABC 11 reported. “If this, in fact, is the young lady we’ve been looking for all weekend long, someone is responsible for that. That just doesn’t just happen.”
The Sheriff’s Office has “people of interest” it wants to talk to, Baker added. After getting a tip, deputies were at the scene early Monday morning and waiting for daylight to search the area even before they got the call from police, he said.
“Investigation is a process of elimination, and we have to begin talking with anybody who can help us and can share information that can help lead us to who is responsible,” Baker said.
The Sheriff’s Office asked anyone with information on the case to call 919-856-6911.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 2:07 PM.
