The suspect arrested after a woman’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase and dumped on Long Island last week allegedly had date rape and other illegal drugs on him when he was busted, authorities said.
Ronald Schroeder, 31, was nabbed at New York’s Penn Station on Friday after the decaying remains of Seikeya Jones, 31, were discovered in the case next to an apartment complex in Huntington just days earlier, ABC7 reported.
Schroeder, who has been hit with concealment of a human corpse charges in the grim case, allegedly had the drugs on him when he was cuffed on an outstanding warrant.
The alleged perp’s arrest came after the victim’s body was uncovered in the luggage in a wooded area close to Huntington Station last Tuesday after locals started complaining of a foul odor, the Suffolk County Police Department said.
The mother of one’s body was found in the fetal position with black cords wrapped around her wrists.
A bungee cord was also found strapped around the suitcase, authorities said.
Jones, who was reported missing by her family on Aug. 16, was last seen on surveillance video walking through the Huntington Station building, according to cops.
Police are still probing how long the case was in the wooded area before it was discovered.
It also wasn’t immediately clear how long Jones had been dead before the gruesome discovery was made.
Autopsy results confirming her official cause of death have yet to be released by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The victim, who is survived by a 4-year-old son, was struggling with homelessness and mental health issues when she vanished, her relatives said.
“We could not help her get ahold of her mental illness; and with this being said, that does not give anybody the right to put their hands on my sister and put her in a suitcase and stuff her inside the bushes like she was nothing,” her sister, Shasia Correnthi, told ABC7.
Meanwhile, Schroeder is being held without bond in the Suffolk County jail following his arrest.
He waived his right to appear in person for his arraignment on Saturday because he was sick, his lawyer told the court.
The suspect is due back in court Thursday.
