Valerie Reyes of New Rochelle was identified as the woman found inside the suitcase and left on the side of the road in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Her mother, Norma Sanchez, said that her daughter became paranoid and spoke to her about her fears on Jan. 28, the night before she vanished.
According to the New York Police Department, Reyes suffered from depression and anxiety.
Sanchez said that she tried to pinpoint the source of her daughter’s anxiety but failed. “I asked about her ex-boyfriend. And she said, ‘No,’” Sanchez said. Reyes and her ex broke up on Jan. 24.
Reyes did tell her mother what turned out to be true: “’I’m afraid someone is going to murder me.”
After she vanished, her family hired a private investigator to look for her. The investigator found surveillance footage that showed Reyes at an ATM in the Manhattan at 2 a.m. on Jan. 30. Sanchez said the family isn’t sure why she traveled to the city and it wasn’t clear if she was with anyone.
“Every morning we would have a conversation. If she didn’t see my son for a couple of days she would ask how he was, ‘Is he OK?’” DiGiacomo said, noting they shared an interest in tattoos. “She was a sweetheart.”
Like Reyes’s family, DiGiacomo held out hope that Reyes would be found even when she was missing for nearly a week. But on Feb. 5, the hope was shattered.
“She was the sweetest most gentle girl, like I can’t see anyone harming her. It’s disgusting. And to put her in a suitcase? And just think about her last minutes, her last breaths,“ she said. “It’s disgusting. It’s disgusting. And this person is on the streets? Walking the streets still? It’s unbelievable.”
Reyes IDed
Officials confirmed the identity of the body on Feb. 7, saying the family had been notified the night before.“Many pieces of possible physical evidence were collected and results from forensic analysis are pending,” police said.
After the discovery, police officials said that the case was a murder case.