The remains of a Florida hairstylist were found in a shallow grave nearly two weeks after her disappearance.
Twenty-year-old Nyeisha Nelson was reported missing by her family after she was last seen on Wednesday, February 11th. Investigators say that Nelson dropped off her 5-year-old daughter at school on this day and was later seen in the yard of her Crescent City home. At some point, she left her home in her 2008 gray Honda Accord with her purse in hand, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Her family grew alarmed when they hadn’t heard from her for several days, which was out of the ordinary for the young mother.
On Thursday, authorities found Nelson’s abandoned vehicle in a wooded area nearly five miles from where her remains were later located on Saturday in a shallow grave.
The medical examiner used fingerprints to confirm her identity and ruled her death a homicide. Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Col. Joseph Wells said during a news conference on Tuesday that while a cause of death has not been made public, she likely knew the person who murdered her.
“This was not a random act of stranger-on-stranger violence. But the exact motive is not known.”
Wells wants to speak with anyone who may have driven Nelson’s car on or around February 11th and anyone else who had contact with her.
“Everybody that knew her or potentially would have had any contact with her at that time period, we want to talk to at this point,” he said. “It has certainly not gotten to the point where we can identify whether the suspect is even male or female or who we’re looking for at this time.”
The owner of the land where Nelson’s body was discovered is not considered a person of interest in the case.
