Body of missing woman found in suitcase
Gerson Funes-Reina
By MATT HOLLIS
Published: 09.03.08

A man was driving on a secluded driveway around 10 a.m. on Aug. 31 when he came across a partially opened black suitcase in the woods around Guinn and 10th Street and decided to examine its contents.

Upon opening it, the man may have wished he never looked inside.

Human remains were inside the abandoned suitcase and the man immediately called the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Homicide investigators were called to the scene and had the body transported to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office. Medical examiners determined that the body was 55-year-old Maria Rodriguez, who was reported missing by her husband on Aug. 29.

Using this information, investigators then located the woman’s 17-year-old daughter, who told police that she and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Gerson Funes-Reina, helped to load her mother’s body into the suitcase and disposing of it.

Funes-Reina was charged with murder. According to investigators, he is from Honduras and is in the country illegally. The daughter was charged with abusing a corpse.

The cause of death is unknown at this time.

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