A New York man has been arrested in connection with the discovery of a woman’s remains found inside a suitcase near a Long Island apartment building in early September.
Authorities in Suffolk County, N.Y., found the body of 31-year-old Seikeya Jones in a suitcase in Huntington on Tuesday, Sep. 3, the local police department previously said in a statement.
Suffolk County Police arrested Ronald Schroeder, 41, on Friday, Sep. 6, on a charge of concealing a corpse in connection with the remains found, police said in an updated statement.
Jones’ remains were found weeks after she was reported missing on Aug. 16, police said. She leaves behind a 4-year-old son, her family says, per ABC 7 NY.
On Sep. 3, homicide investigators responded to the scene after a 911 caller alerted them to a “suspicious activity in the wooded area” near a building in Huntington, police said in their press release. Once there, they found a suitcase with a body inside, which was later determined to be Jones.
Her mother, Yolando Terrell, told ABC 7 NY about the horrifying way she learned about her daughter’s death.
“I’m looking and I’m looking, and I can’t find her, and I come back from vacation, and I see on the news that my daughter is in a suitcase,” she said.
“Someone has to give me some answers,” Terrell added.
Family mourns Long Island woman whose body was found in suitcasenone
Jones’ family said she struggled with mental illness, per ABC 7 NY and FOX 5 NY. Police said Jones was homeless at the time of her death.
“I’m here today to say that my sister Seikeya Jones has a family that was standing beside her,” Jones’ sister Shasia Correnthi told ABC 7 NY, adding that her mental illness “does not give anybody the right to put their hands on my sister and put her in a suitcase, and stuff her inside these bushes like she was nothing.”
At a vigil for her on Friday, Jones’ friends remembered her as the “life of the party” who always had such a bright smile on her that she’d earned a special nickname, Terrell told FOX 5 NY.
“Every time you looked at her, she had that big bright smile on her face, so we gave her the nickname ‘Cheese,’” Terrell told the outlet.
According to New York State online court records, Schroeder has pleaded not guilty to the charge. He is being represented by the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, which declined to comment to PEOPLE on the matter.
An investigation is ongoing.
