New York Woman Found in Suitcase Had Suffocated to Death, Officials Say

Pallbearers carry the casket of homicide victim Valerie Reyes into her funeral mass at St. Gabriel's Church in New Rochelle, New York, on Feb. 12, 2019. Tyler Sizemore/Heast Connecticut Media

A New York woman whose body was discovered inside a suitcase on a road in a Connecticut town was murdered by being suffocated to death, officials said on May 6.

Connecticut medical examiner’s office confirmed that 24-year-old Valerie Reyes, from New Rochelle, New York, had died from “homicidal asphyxia.”