USA TODAY International Edition
Murder victim had feared for her life
Woman’s body found last week in suitcase
Valerie Reyes feared “someone is going to murder me” the night before she went missing. Eight days later, her body was found stuffed into a red suitcase, bound at the wrists and ankles and dumped on the side of a road in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“She was very scared, very frightened,” her mother, Norma Sanchez, said during an interview at her home in New Rochelle, New York. “She didn’t mention anything or no one specific. She just said, ‘I’m scared. I’m paranoid, mommy. I’m getting anxiety attacks.’ She was having a hard time talking.
“I asked her, ‘Why do you feel this way? Was there someone at your house?’ I asked about her ex-boyfriend. And she said, ‘No,’ ” Sanchez said about her conversation with her daughter on Jan. 28.
“I’m afraid someone is going to murder me,” Reyes told her mother that evening.
“We wonder, ‘Who made her feel this way?’ ” said Sanchez.
Reyes, 24, who lived in an apartment in New Rochelle, broke up with her boyfriend on Jan. 24, Sanchez said.
Reyes’ body was found on Tuesday and identified two days later.
Reyes was reported missing on Jan. 30. Sanchez said the family hired a private investigator the next day, who tracked Reyes to Manhattan, where ATM cameras captured her around 2 a.m. Reyes’ bank card was used that morning in the city at a different ATM, though it’s unclear whether she or someone else used the card.
During a Thursday vigil, a few hundred people held candles in Reyes’ honor while praying and singing in Spanish.
Anyone with information about the case may contact the Greenwich police at 203-622-3333 or email tips@greenwchct.org.