Footage from area where Shannon Marie Caslin Reeder was found dead stuffed in suitcase (KOMO).
Almost a year after her last confirmed sighting, a homeless woman was found stuffed dead in a suitcase. Now investigators in Seattle, Washington, are working to officially determine how Shannon Marie Caslin Reeder, 37, died and to figure out who put her in the suitcase.
“It was absolutely one of the most heinous, disgusting things that I’ve ever heard,” Tim Emerson, program director for We Heart Seattle, a homeless outreach group, according to Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO. “It’s hard to believe that a human being could do something like that to another human.”
The discovery happened amid a separate incident in which in which a man was shot and injured near a homeless encampment in the area of Dr. Jose Rizal Park in Seattle. Law enforcement and outreach workers moved to clear out the encampment, but on Sept. 27, those workers discovered the suitcase and the horrifying remains in a trash pile.
Emerson reportedly said violence was not unusual in the area.
“There’s always a worry and a concern,” he said. “You always just have to be smart, watch your backs and know who you’re dealing with and when to walk away.”
Investigators are reportedly establishing a timeline leading up to Reeder’s death, and they are seeking anyone who saw her or had contact with her in the last 12 months. Washington State Patrol reportedly said the last confirmed sighting was November 2023.
“Anyone with information, that might be helpful in finding out what happened to Shannon, or who might have knowledge of who may have been involved in her untimely death and the callous disposal of her remains are asked to call Detective John Ford at 425-401-7742 or Detective Ivan Sergeev at 425-401-771,” authorities wrote.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office is working to figure out her cause of death, according to The Seattle Times.
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