Police identify person found dead in suitcase as Seikeya Jones, 31

A body found stuffed in a discarded suitcase in a well-traveled stretch of Huntington has been identified as a 31-year-old homeless woman, the Suffolk County police said Thursday.

The woman, Seikeya Jones, was described by the Suffolk police in a news release Thursday as "undomiciled." Jones had been reported missing Aug. 16 and was last seen near Fifth Avenue in Huntington Station, police said.

The Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office had not determined a cause of death as of late Thursday afternoon. Other information about the case was not available, including how long the body had been at the location or who left it there.

Suffolk police officers responding Tuesday to a report of suspicious activity discovered the suitcase and the body inside it at about noon in a wooded area on Nassau Road near New York Avenue and next to an apartment complex.

Jones had previously been reported missing for four months before she was found in July 2022, records show. At the time, she was listed as a vulnerable adult, who may have been in need of medical care, according to the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services.

There was no answer Thursday at the last known address for Jones in Greenlawn.

At the location where her body had been found, someone left a small, oval-shaped  rock with a message painted in multiple colors that read: "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite the darkness.”

Friends on Thursday stopped by the site — in an area of trees and brush, across the street from a pizzeria and the M.A. Connell Funeral Home.

Investigators could be seen going in and out of the apartment complex through Tuesday evening but had no comment on the case Thursday.

Relatives confirmed to Newsday they provided a photo of Jones to police, but declined to comment further.

A friend of the victim since high school, Mary Waldron, 33, of East Northport, remembered Jones as someone who did her best to stay upbeat, "even being on the streets when she was having hard times."

"She’s not violent and was the last person you’d see this would happen to," Waldron said. "In any community, something as vicious as this is sickening and especially for her. She was the sweetest person in the world."

The area where police made the discovery is located within walking distance of Huntington High School and Jack Abrams Stem Magnet School. As homicide investigators combed over the scene Tuesday afternoon, students from both schools let out after the first day of classes for the fall semester.

"We have been in communication with our local police who have assured us that this police activity poses no danger to our students or our school district," said Beth McCoy, Huntington schools superintendent, in a message sent Tuesday to the school community.

With Nicholas Grasso

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.