The body of a pregnant woman from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, who went missing last week was discovered overnight in a wooded area in Southwest Philadelphia.
“Philadelphia police say the body was identified as 21-year-old Dianna Brice who was last seen last Tuesday and was four-and-a-half months pregnant,” CBS Philly reported.
Her family’s private investigator told the outlet police identified Brice by her tattoos.
Law enforcement officers reportedly said she had been shot and the case is now a Philadelphia police homicide investigation.
“The body was found around 11 p.m. Monday at 58th Street and Eastwick Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. It is not clear what tip led police to the location of the body in a desolate area,” the report continued:
This discovery comes days after mother Betty Cellini told Eyewitness News that her 21-year-old daughter, Dianna Brice, had not been seen since last Tuesday. She says she and Brice were in Landsdowne at a laundromat when Brice’s boyfriend Justin Smith came to pick her up to go to a pharmacy in Kensington at around 11:30 a.m.
During that trip, she says the two got in an argument, and Brice – who is four-and-a-half months pregnant and has a child at home – got out of the car. Cellini says she threatened to file a police report and that’s when Smith disappeared.
Around 5:30 p.m. that day, Smith’s car was reportedly located on fire at Florence Avenue and Cobbs Creek Parkway but neither Brice nor Smith had been seen since that time.
According to NBC Philadelphia, the vehicle’s location was just over a mile from where authorities found the body.
Prior to the discovery of the body, the Upper Darby Police Department shared photos of Brice and Smith:
“Words don’t express how sad it is for a young woman who leaves behind a 4-year-old child and was 3 to 4 months pregnant with her second,” Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt told reporters.
Smith is still missing and is currently considered a person of interest, the CBS article concluded.