The body of a missing woman was discovered hidden behind a secret wall in a hoarder-style house.
Renia Lewis, 28, was reported missing to the Vallejo Police Department in California on Sunday, and officers went to a home on 14th Street following leads that she may have been there before vanishing.
Officers entered the Vallejo residence and carried out ‘a welfare check and a cursory search of all rooms, closets, and places a person could hide’, but did not find Lewis, according to the police department.
The next day, the police department’s community engagement team requested an Ebony Alert, which is a statewide system to issue messages on suspicious or unexplained disappearances of black people. The California Highway Patrol approved the alert, although Lewis’ case did not meet the requirements.
The police department also brought the FBI into effort.
On Sunday, detectives returned to the home and executed a search warrant to do a more thorough check.
‘During this search, they discovered a concealed entry into the attic,’ stated the police department.
‘Officers searched the attic and located the remains if a deceased female inside that is suspected of being the missing woman.’
The body was confirmed to belong to Lewis, of Berkeley.
‘You would miss it because my baby girl was hidden behind a wall,’ the victim’s cousin, Latoya Lewis, told KTVU.
‘A secret wall they placed her behind.’
The victim’s family members described the property where she was found as resembling a hoarder’s home.
Authorities also identified Douglas Irwin Shaw, 41, of Vallejo, as a suspect in Lewis’ death. He was arrested by officers at his workplace without incident.
Shaw admitted to detectives that he was responsible for the horrific crime. He has been charged with murder and booked into Solano County Jail.
‘This was a heartbreaking, senseless act of violence that has no place in our community,’ stated police Chief Jason Ta.
‘Above all, our thoughts are with the decedent’s family during this incredibly difficult time.’
A neighborhood impact team is offering trauma resources to residents needing support.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the police department.
Lewis was murdered nearly six years after a man was sentenced to death for killing his roommate with a hammer and hiding her in a wall inside a closet of an apartment in Lomita, California.