A 67-year-old woman was found dead inside a suitcase at a Wichita fire station last week, and now her family is speaking out, insisting she be remembered for the life she lived rather than the disturbing way it ended. Police have identified her as Loretta Moody, though one report spells her name Lorretta Moody, and they are investigating her death as a homicide.
According to myv101.iheart.com, two people arrived at Wichita Fire Station 22 on the evening of September 16 and told fire personnel that a body was inside the suitcase they had brought with them. Police responded to the scene at 6:25 p.m. and discovered Moody inside the suitcase; she was pronounced dead there. The two individuals who brought the suitcase are being interviewed by investigators, but their relationship to Moody remains under investigation, the outlet reports.
Officers said that, based on the information available to them, they do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the public. Wichita Police Department homicide investigators are asking anyone with information about the case to call 316-268-4407, according to Action News 5.
Family Says She Was “Spunky” and “Full of Life”
For Moody’s family, the horror of how she was found has become inseparable from their grief, and they are pushing back against letting the suitcase define her memory. Her granddaughter described her in blunt, tender terms, telling the station, “She was spunky, I’d say, for a little person. She was full of life.” The family says Moody would want to be remembered as the loving woman she was, not for the circumstances surrounding her death.
Her granddaughter did not soften her anger over what happened, calling the killing “just evil” in comments to the same outlet. The family has said that Moody’s relatives were everything to her, and that they want the public to hold onto that image of her rather than the details investigators are still piecing together.
Fundraiser Set Up for Funeral Costs
Moody’s family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover memorial and funeral expenses, according to the same report. As of the Action News 5 story published early Wednesday, no arrests or charges had been announced in connection with her death, and investigators have not disclosed how she died beyond classifying the case as a homicide.
The case remains active, and police have not said when they expect to determine the relationship between Moody and the two people who brought the suitcase to the fire station. For now, her family is left waiting for answers while trying to keep the focus on who she was rather than how her life ended.
