OAKLAND, CA – A startling discovery sent shockwaves through Oakland’s Lake Merritt as a body was found concealed within a suitcase on Tuesday morning. Police authorities reported that a group of volunteers engaged in a cleanup effort stumbled upon the ominous luggage submerged in the water near the intersection of Lakeshore and Hanover Avenues.
Kevin Shomo, one of the dedicated cleanup volunteers, recounted the grim moment they uncovered the suitcase. “Normally we see luggage in the lake,” Shomo stated, “Sometimes it’s full of clothes and it gets heavy from the water. We got near the body. We saw it and I said, ‘Wow, how are we going to get this out of here? It looks like it’s heavy.’ We pulled it towards us closer using these net poles and we grabbed one end and then realized it was too heavy…We unzipped it and that’s what we found.”
The discovery left Shomo and his fellow volunteers taken aback, as they found an adult man wrapped in what appeared to be a sheet inside the suitcase, approximately five feet from the lake’s shore. Dive teams were summoned to retrieve the suitcase and its gruesome contents from the water.
As the investigation unfolds, Oakland police homicide detectives are diligently working to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the person’s death and the duration the body had been submerged in the lake. Oakland police Capt. Alan Yu commented, “Part of the investigation is to try to determine where the body floated from as well. It could be any part of the lake. We are looking into all those possible outcomes.”
The identity of the deceased victim that was found in the suitcase is currently being withheld until the next of kin is notified. Authorities are urging anyone with pertinent information about the case to contact the Oakland Police Department’s Homicide Section.