Woman Whose Body Was Found In Suitcase Had Chilling Talk With Mom Before Death

A New York woman whose body was found in a suitcase on the side of a Connecticut road this week had an upsetting conversation with her mother before she went missing.

Valerie Reyes, 24, spoke to her mother, Norma Sanchez, on the phone on the night of Jan. 28, Sanchez told the Rockland/Westchester Journal News.

Reyes, from her home in New Rochelle, told her mother that she was feeling “scared” and “paranoid.”

“I’m afraid someone is going to murder me,” she said, according to her mother.

Reyes told her mother that there wasn’t anyone threatening her, but Sanchez nevertheless less said, “We wonder, ‘who made her feel this way?’”

The day after that conversation, Reyes did not show up for work at Barnes & Noble, according to the New York Times. She did not respond to text messages and calls went straight to voice mail, but surveillance footage from a bank in New York City showed that Reyes was there on Jan. 30. On Feb. 5 ― eight days after her conversation with her mother ― Reyes’ body was found in a suitcase on the side of the road in Greenwich, Connecticut, her hands and feet bound.

Police are investigating her death as a homicide, though no suspects have been announced. Medical examiners are working to determine her cause of death. CBS New York reported that investigators spent hours on Friday gathering evidence at Reyes’ apartment. The day before, hundreds of people attended a vigil for Reyes at a local church.