Nisaa Walcott.Photo: Facebook
A New York woman who went missing last week was found dead in a plastic storage bin left out on a sidewalk – and now her cousin is charged in her murder, according to police.
Inside a plastic storage container was an unresponsive woman, later identified as Nisaa Walcott, 35, of East Harlem, the New York City Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE.
EMS pronounced the Walcott, a mother to a 14-year-old boy, dead at the scene. Walcott’s brothers had reported her missing the previous day,CBS2reported.
On Saturday, police arrested Walcott’s cousin, Khalid Barrow, 21, of the Bronx, according to the NYPD. He is charged with murder and concealing a human corpse, the NYPD said.
Her brothers grew suspicious when they tried to reach her and received text messages back that didn’t sound like her.
“The language that was being used was like, wait a minute, that’s not my sister,” her brother, Eugene Butler, told CBS2.
He was arrested after police obtained surveillance video of Walcott going inside her building with Barrow on Friday. Barrow is seen on camera leaving alone afterward.
The video also showed Barrow removing a plastic container from Barrow’s building on Friday, according to police.
Police believe Barrow allegedly posed as Walcott and texted her family members to make it look like she was alive and texting them.
But her family grew suspicious when one of the texts indicated she was going on a business trip and needed someone to watch her son.
Police have not yet provided information regarding a motive, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The New York City Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.
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In the meantime, Walcott’s stunned family, friends and son are grappling with the loss of the woman they still can’t believe is gone.
“She was just a really good person,” Walcott’s friend, Luz Droz, told CBS2. “She really took care of her son. She was a hard worker.”
“She was involved with wanting to help people,” Droz added. “She was an entrepreneur. She was a beautiful spirit, strong woman.”
Walcott’s brother is horrified that his sister was killed in such a brutal way.
“This is barbaric, very gutless,” Butler told CBS2. “The person who did this had to have been a person who had no soul, because all she wanted to do was help this person.”
Another friend, Delia Soto, toldNBC 4 New York: “The way she died did not represent who she was as a person. She’s full of life, full of everything that makes people happy. She sees you sad, she smiles with you.”
“She did not deserve to be discarded like trash on the street,” Soto told CBS2.
source: people.com
