The body of a missing woman was found stashed in an attic hidden behind a secret wall inside a California hoarder home, police announced Wednesday.
Renia Lewis, 28, was last seen alive on Friday, triggering an investigation that led authorities to “a home in the unit block of 14th Street in Vallejo” on Sunday, according to a Vallejo Police Department press release.
Officers carried out “a welfare check and a cursory search of all rooms, closets and places a person could hide,” but they found “no signs of the missing woman.”
The following day, the California State Highway Patrol issued an Ebony Alert and agents with the FBI joined the investigation.
On Tuesday, authorities returned to the same residence with a warrant, “citing new investigative information,” police said. The subsequent search turned up “a concealed entry into the attic,” where “the remains of a deceased female” were found.
Authorities said there were signs Lewis had been at the “hoarder-style” residence prior to her disappearance, KTUV reported. Few other details, including her cause of death, were provided.
A suspect, identified as 41-year-old Douglas Shaw, was arrested shortly after Lewis’ remains were found. He allegedly confessed to the “heinous crime,” and he was booked into Solano County Jail for murder, police said.
