Woman Found in Suitcase: 'Someone' Will Kill Me

A woman found murdered in a suitcase Tuesday told her mother only days before that she feared for her life, the New York Times reports. Valerie Reyes, 24, turned deeply anxious in a Jan. 28 phone call: "She was very scared, very frightened," her mother Norma Sanchez tells the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. "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." Norma asked if someone had visited her, or if her ex-boyfriend was involved, but the Valerie said no—yet added, "I'm afraid someone is going to murder me." Valerie also said she'd heard about the murders of women, saying, "I just can't get it out of my head."

The New Rochelle, NY, resident texted her mom later that evening saying she felt better, but didn't show up for work at Barnes & Noble in Scarsdale the next day. Detectives investigating her disappearance found surveillance video of her at a Chase Bank branch in New York City on Jan. 30, and showed it to Norma. "We were hoping that maybe she just wanted to isolate herself and be alone," she says. But Valerie was found about a week later in a big red suitcase in upscale Greenwich, Conn., leaving law enforcement and Valerie's mom trying to comprehend. "There needs to be justice for my precious daughter," says Norma. "The people who did this need to pay." Officials haven't released a cause of death or announced any arrests, notes Fox News. (A public works employee has been punished for taking photos of her body.)