The woman whose body was found inside a suitcase at a Lakeside apartment last week was the resident’s paraplegic daughter, neighbors told NBC 7.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office identified the woman as Brooke MacBeth, 28, on Monday. Officials have not released the cause of her death.
"She was a parapelic and she lived there," said Kari McKee, who lives right next door. "There was a hospital bed and she'd stay in that."
Deputies discovered the body-filled suitcase last Tuesday when they served an eviction notice to her mother, identified by neighbors as Bonnie Macbeth. The tenant of the Riverview Villa Apartments had failed to pay rent, but when court services deputies arrived, she told them there was a body inside her apartment.
Homicide investigators soon discovered Brooke’s remains in a duct tape-sealed suitcase, from which a foul odor was wafting.
Neighbors told NBC 7 Monday that they remember seeing Brooke around the area with her mother. But months earlier, she seemed to disappear. Investigators say Brooke could have died in the apartment at least six months ago, if not more than a year.
Though McKee never met Brooke, she said it's been hard to sleep since her body was found.
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"When I found out someone was dead there for frickin six months," said McKee, "Good Lord, have mercy, that just freaked me out."
Brooke’s mother was taken to the hospital on Tuesday, though deputies would not say for what. No charges have been filed in this case.
