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.”

More Law&Crime coverage: Teenager who murdered homeless woman said he was going ‘hobo hunting,’ prosecutor says

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.”