A North Carolina couple has been charged in the death of a pregnant woman whose body was found last week stuffed inside a suitcase near the Neuse River.
Thomas Clayton Johnson, 37, and Emmalei Trevathan, 24, were pulled over Feb. 11 for a traffic stop in Raleigh, where they were arrested in the slaying of 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith, according to reports.
The State Medical Examiner’s Office, which confirmed Smith’s identity, determined she had been strangled to death.
»PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Body found inside suitcase along North Carolina river
Johnson and Trevathan were charged with murder, murder of an unborn child and concealment of a body. They are being held at the Wake County Detention Center without bail.
Police have not revealed a motive nor how the suspects came to be acquainted with the victim.
“It’s safe to say that this is no accident,” said Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker. “It’s not every day, it’s not every morning that you find what could be a person’s body in a suitcase, in a river.”
The pair’s arrest came three days after Smith’s remains turned up Feb. 8 near the 5400 block of Allen Drive on the Neuse River Trail in Wake County.
The woman had been missing since Feb. 4 after being last seen in Wendell, according to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, which launched an immediate search.
Smith was described as 4-foot-11, 115 pounds and “noticeably pregnant,” however, officials were unable to find her.
Then a passerby noticed a suitcase along the river shore and looked inside. The woman’s remains were unrecognizable.
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