Body was found on Monday, stuffed in suitcase bya river in North Carolina, just 10 miles from Wendell where a pregnant woman went missing a week ago

On Thursday, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance in locating 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith

The body was found in a suitcase alongside the by the Neuse River Trail in Raleigh

On Thursday, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance in locating 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith

The case is considered a homicide and cause of death is still being determined

Police have not disclosed the identity of the victim but said it’s possible she is Smith, but those close to her believe the body belongs to Smiuth

A body has been found in a suitcase alongside a river in North Carolina near where a pregnant woman was reported missing last week.   
The female corpse was spotted by a passerby on Monday morning near the Neuse River Trail in Raleigh, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office said. 
Police have not disclosed the identity of the victim but said it’s possible she is 28-year-old Brittany Samone Smith, who disappeared about 10 miles away in Wendell on February 2.
On Thursday, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance in locating Brittany Smith.

The case is being treated as a homicide, according to Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker, who told reporters that it’s ‘safe to say this was no accident’.
An autopsy is underway to confirm the woman’s identity and cause of death.  
‘We’re getting ready to confirm [the woman’s identity],’ Baker told reporters at the scene on Monday.
‘I can’t sit here and tell you that’s what’s in there right now. We have not gotten to that point. We have information to believe it.’
‘It’s not every day, it’s not every morning, that you find what could be a person’s body in a suitcase, in a river,’ he added.  

Police had put out an alert asking for the public’s help in locating Smith on Saturday, four days after she was last seen in Wendell.
An aerial view shows detectives on the scene where the woman’s body was found on Monday. ABC11 reported that Smith’s family was also at the scene

Police had put out an alert asking for the public’s help in locating Smith on Saturday, four days after she was last seen in Wendell. WRAL reported that neighbors said Smith had been living with her boyfriend in a tent behind a house in the 200 block of Fox Run Drive. WXII 12 News also published photos of the tent. 
Smith was described as being 4’11” tall, about 115 pounds and ‘noticeably pregnant’.  
Baker hinted that investigators suspect Smith may be the victim in the suitcase on Monday.  
‘If this is, in fact, this young lady that we’ve been looking for all weekend, someone is responsible for that,’ he said. 

The sheriff also said there is a ‘person of interest’ detectives want to speak with.  
“We’re going to work very hard. We’re going to find out who was responsible. I can tell you that,” Baker said.
“Because these things just don’t happen. Someone is responsible. If this is in fact, this young lady that we’ve been looking for all weekend, someone is responsible for that.”