A 67-year-old Kansas great-grandmother who had been reported missing was found dead inside a suitcase that two people carried into a Wichita fire station, and weeks later, police have made no arrests.
Lorretta Moody's body was identified after two unidentified individuals walked into Wichita Fire Department Station 22 on September 16 and told personnel that the suitcase they were carrying contained a body. The Wichita Police Department confirmed it is investigating the case as a homicide, though the department has not named any suspects or disclosed a cause of death.
Moody had been reported missing to police before her body was found. How long she had been missing, who filed the report, and where she was last seen alive remain unanswered. The two people who delivered the suitcase were interviewed by detectives, but police have not said whether they are considered suspects, witnesses, or persons of interest.
Alexis Trotter, Moody's granddaughter, spoke to local outlet KWCH about the loss. She did not mince words.
"This is just evil. There's no other word for it."
Trotter described a woman who lived for her family, not someone whose name should be attached to the gruesome circumstances of her death. As the New York Post reported, Trotter pushed back against the idea that her grandmother would be remembered only for how her body was found.
"She wouldn't want to be known as the person who showed up in a suitcase at a fire station. She would be wanting to be known as the loving person that she was, a loving grandmother and a loving great-grandmother."
Trotter also described Moody's personality in warm, specific terms.
"[She] loved all of us grandkids, her great-grandkids. Family was everything to her. She was spunky, I'd say, for a little person. She was full of life."
The Wichita Police Department told the Post that the investigation is ongoing and that detectives are continuing to "follow up and speak with anyone who may have information." Beyond that single statement, the department has offered little. No cause of death has been released. No suspect descriptions have been made public. The relationship, if any, between the two individuals who brought the suitcase and Moody herself has not been explained.
That silence leaves a family, and a city, with more questions than answers. Cases involving violence against women and family members demand swift, transparent police work. Moody's family has made clear they expect results.
Trotter issued a direct appeal to whoever is responsible.
"We want to get the people who did it, and whoever did it, I hope they come forward and realize this isn't something that should just be normal, everyday life."
She added simply: "She's a human, and she was somebody's family member. She was somebody's blood."
While police continue their investigation, Moody's relatives face the immediate burden of paying for her burial. A GoFundMe page set up for funeral expenses had raised nearly $800 toward a $5,500 goal as of the most recent available figures. The page's creator was not identified in available reporting from the Post or local outlets.
Moody was 67. She was a grandmother and a great-grandmother. By every account from her family, she was a woman who poured herself into the people she loved. None of that protected her.
A community that cannot keep a 67-year-old great-grandmother safe, and a police department that, weeks later, cannot tell the public who killed her or why, owes that family more than an open case file and a form statement about following up.
