Suspect in Jassy Correia kidnapping case arrested; body found in the car

Five days following a woman vanished outside a Theatre District nightclub, her body was discovered in the trunk of a guy’s automobile Thursday in Delaware and he was detained and accused of kidnapping her, authorities and family members said. Family members said Thursday night the body was that of Jassy Correia, the mother of a woman. Correia was last seen walking early Sunday morning in the company of an unidentified man.

Suspect in Jassy Correia kidnapping case arrested

“She had been a mom, she had been courageous, she was powerful,” Correia’s cousin Katia Depina said Thursday night in a Dorchester home where family and friends had gathered. “She did not deserve this. She went out to celebrate her birthday and never returned home.”

“We want justice for her death,” Depina explained. Depina stated she did not know the defendant in the disappearance of Correia. Delaware State Police detained Louis D. Coleman III, 32, Thursday, after a search that extended over three nations.

Update: A body was recovered from the car. #netDE https://t.co/wI8Tei06lV

— Delaware Online (@delawareonline) February 28, 2019

23, jassy Correia, has been missing since leaving Venu nightclub. She had been seen on surveillance video with Louis D. Coleman III, 32. Coleman was detained in Delaware on Thursday, authorities said. A cousin of Jassy’s told reporters Thursday night, “We received some devastating news now, and Jassy is no longer with us” Boston police haven’t released any information on the identity of the body discovered and stated they’re working to determine a cause of death.

Coleman was detained in relation to her disappearance but has not been charged. Police released a surveillance picture of what they believed was Jassy Correia and Coleman walking; video of Coleman walking, and an image of a car that the pair were spotted getting into early Sunday morning.

Correia left the Venu Nightclub at 12:15 a.m. Sunday. Wearing hoop earrings, an orange jumpsuit, and jean coat decorated with red lips and pink wings, Correia was captured walking using an unidentified person and then climbing into a red vehicle with him in the intersection of Herald and Tremont streets. Her disappearance prompted a plea for information about her whereabouts, like the push investigators made in January following 23-year-old Olivia Ambrose vanished outside a downtown bar. Investigators found Ambrose a few days later in the apartment of Victor Pena, 38, who was charged with kidnapping.

This week’s investigation mobilized police in at least three states — Massachusetts, Delaware, and Rhode Island — and introduced a large police presence to some six-story brick apartment building in Providence in which Coleman lived. A missing person report was filed Wednesday following Correia’s brother and father was not able to get in touch. Her father, Joaquin Correia, told NECN he phoned his daughter Tuesday for her birthday, but she didn’t pick up.

“If I do not see my daughter, I don’t understand how I’m going to live,” Correia said.