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On the morning of February 5, 2019, a road crew tasked with cleanup duties in Greenwich, Connecticut, discovered a red suitcase discarded in a wooded area of a backyard, which prompted them to call 911.
“My detective lieutenant informed me about a body found in a suitcase,” recounted Det. Anthony Fiscella, who is now retired from the Greenwich Police Department. This statement comes from a preview of the “Portrait of a Tragedy” episode from the series Buried in the Backyard, which airs on Saturday, August 23 at 8/7c p.m.
The grim discovery was made six days after 24-year-old Valerie Reyes had gone missing from her home in New Rochelle, New York.
“As we got closer to the scene, I descended the embankment,” explained Det. Sgt. Pierangelo Corticelli from the Greenwich Police Department. “I noticed the suitcase. As we advanced, we discovered the victim inside.”
Learn more about what investigators discovered about the body in the suitcase found in Greenwich and its shocking condition.
What happened to Valerie Reyes?
Detectives observed that the victim found in the suitcase, like Reyes, was a woman in her 20s with medium-length black hair and a number of tattoos.
“She was taped with this packing tape, from her chin up to the top of her nose, and wrapped multiple times,” Fiscella said.
The period leading up to the discovery of the body had been frigid, with several days of single-digit temperatures.
“The body was literally frozen,” Corticelli said.
When the medical examiner arrived at 11 a.m., the victim was removed from the suitcase and her body was examined.
“She had ice crystals about her face and neck and her bare feet,” Fiscella said.
The victim also had visible signs of trauma on her body.
“We noticed her hands had some minor abrasions on them, a fingernail broken on one of the hands,” Corticelli said.
The injuries told a terrible story of what had happened in the victim’s final moments. “This girl fought for her life,” said Fiscella.
To learn more about how the investigators identified the victim and uncovered her killer, tune in to the “Portrait of a Tragedy” episode of Buried in the Backyard, airing Saturday, August 23 at 8/7c p.m. on Oxygen.
