A suspect has been arrested and charged in connection to the remains of a woman found stuffed inside a suitcase on Long Island, according to police.
Ronald Schroeder was caught by MTA police at Penn Station in Manhattan just before 2 p.m. on Friday, Suffolk County Police said. The 31-year-old Schroeder was charged with concealment of a human corpse after the body of Seikeya Jones was discovered in a suitcase on Sept. 3. MTA police also charged with with third-degree possession of a controlled substance.
Attorney information for Schroeder was not immediately available.
The suitcase was found in a wooded area behind an apartment building in Huntington. The medical examiner is still determining how the 31-year-old Jones died.
Those who knew Jones stopped by where she was found as mystery grows around how she ended up there.
“We called her Keya,” Mary Waldron said. “She was a really sweet girl. She was always smiling. She was always happy.”
Waldron told reporters that Jones had run into some trouble and she “changed and kind of ended up on the streets.” Still, her friends attempted to keep in contact with her.
Police confirmed Jones was homeless and that she was reported missing last month. It wasn’t the first time she had been reported missing, her friends said.
Residents at the apartment building where Jones was found showed NBC New York a doorbell video that appeared to show her walking inside last week with an unidentified man. Two people who knew her confirmed that it was Jones in the blurry footage.
It was not clear whether the man seen on that video was Schroeder, or if he was connected in any way to the ongoing investigation.
Seikeya Jones’ body was left behind an apartment building in Huntington, according to Suffolk County police. The gruesome discovery occurred before noon on Tuesday in a wooded area along Nassau Road in Huntington, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives at (631) 852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
