Human remains found in suitcases, police say
PALM BAY, Fla. (WESH) – Human remains were found inside suitcases over the weekend in Florida, police said.
The remains were found at an area known as “the compound” in Palm Bay, Florida.
Officers visited the site after someone called to say they saw a suitcase with vultures flying around it. They found another suitcase nearby.
Both suitcases contained human remains. Police believe the remains belong to 28-year-old Colie Lee Daniel, a registered sex offender.
He was reported missing on March 21.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Daniel visited a friend’s house the day before and never came home.
Inside the suitcases, officers said they also found an Amazon package and personal belongings, all addressed to 19-year-old Lucas Jones.
When police arrived with a search warrant at Jones’s home, they found “visible healed wounds and bruises on his left shoulder and the right side of his neck.”
Police said they located bloodstains inside Jones’s home, as well as a kitchen knife that resembled one they found in one of the suitcases.
While police said Jones would not speak, his girlfriend did.
She told officers that she saw Daniel either lying asleep or unconscious on Jones’s bed on March 20. She also told investigators that the next day, Jones instructed her to drive to “the compound,” and she watched him discard two totes in separate locations. She told police she “did not know what was inside the tote containers or suitcases.”
Jones is charged with transporting a human body in an unauthorized container, abuse of a dead body and tampering with evidence.
Copyright 2026 WESH via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
