Police nabbed a 31-year-old Huntington man at Penn Station Friday afternoon in connection with the suitcase that was discovered last week containing the remains of Seikeya Jones, also 31.
Suffolk County homicide detectives coordinated with MTA Police in arresting Ronald Schroeder at the station.
He was charged just before 2 p.m. with concealment of a human corpse — a Class E felony — and an active bench warrant. MTA police also charged Schroeder with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, officials said.
That all went down hours before a tearful Friday night vigil that family and friends held in Huntington to honor Jones’s memory.
“Something good is going to come out of this and when all is said and done, my daughter will not have been left in vain,” her mother, Yolanda Terrell, told Newsday. “My daughter is going to get justice. She did not deserve to get thrown in a ditch in that suitcase. No one deserves that.”
Jones’ body was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in a wooded area just outside an apartment building at 320 Nassau Road on Tuesday.
Police found her remains after receiving a 911 call reporting suspicious activity in the area. It was a local resident who made the emergency call after coming across the suitcase.
In a missing persons report earlier this week, authorities had reported that Jones did not return to her home on Fifth Avenue in Huntington Station on Aug. 16, and was missing since that date.
Schroeder was held overnight at the SCPD Third Precinct in Bay Shore as he awaited arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip, police said.
His arrest marked the third in a string of events this year in Suffolk County that led to charges related to a corpse.
Four people were arrested in Amityville in March after body parts were found scattered in Babylon, West Islip and Bethpage. In June, a 72-year-old Patchogue man was charged in another case that involved dismemberment, with remains found in East Patchogue.
Last week in Huntington, a local resident made the emergency call after coming across the suitcase.
“I was taking a walk and I just, I smelled something,” the resident, who went by Taylor, told News 12. “I saw a whole bunch of flies. I had looked over and I saw the suitcase. So then I called it in, I was like I’d rather be safe than sorry. This is out of the ordinary. This is not normal.”
This is still an ongoing investigation, and police are asking anyone with information to contact the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
Photo: Seikeya Jones’ mother, Yolanda Terrell, in mask, hugs daughter Dijonzhane Johnson during a candlelight vigil Friday near the Huntington complex where Jones’ body was found earlier in the week. Credit: Howard Simmons/Newsday
