The Northumberland County Sheriff’s Office said a body matching the description of 28-year-old Ahrea’l Smith was found by a road crew on Tuesday, NBC12 reports.
Smith, a store clerk, was last seen leaving work at the Claraville Little Sue Food Store in Heathsville on Jan. 12.
A Virginia man was taken into custody and charged with Smith’s abduction a week after she was last seen.
Tyrone N. Samuel, 50, was charged Saturday in Smith’s abduction. He is being held without bond and more charges are expected.
Police say Smith was alone when she closed up the shop. Surveillance cameras show her leaving the store at 9:05 p.m. and starting her car.
She returned to the store and went back outside again at 9:18 p.m. and got into another vehicle. The driver of that vehicle was located and is not considered a suspect in her disappearance.
Smith went back inside the store, turned on the alarm and locked the door. She was last seen taking a trash bag to the dumpster on the east side of the building where there are no cameras.
A clerk arriving to open the store the next morning found Smith’s car still running in the parking lot. Smith was nowhere to be found.
Virginia State Police brought in a K-9 dog that tracked her scent from the dumpsters to nearby Walnut Point Road before it ended.
Smith’s grieving sister, Lydia, told News Nation she last talked to her sister on Saturday, Jan. 8. She said calls to Smith’s phone go directly to voicemail.
Lydia said her sister had expressed concern that someone at the store made her feel “uncomfortable”.
She said Smith didn’t know Samuel, the man charged with her abduction.
