Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Utah police confirm body in suitcase is missing Las Vegas woman’s

Samuel Teran and Susana Villalvazo

Courtesy

Samuel Teran (left) and Susana Villalvazo (right)

SALT LAKE CITY — Police say they've confirmed that a body found in a large suitcase along a freeway near Salt Lake City is that of a missing Las Vegas woman.

Lt. Lex Bell of Utah's Unified Police Department said Wednesday that DNA test results showed the body found in April is that of 46-year-old Susana Villalvazo.

Police say they've closed the investigation into her shooting death after her stepfather, Samuel Teran, killed himself when he was stopped by police. He was the only suspect.

They were reported missing under suspicious circumstances from their family's Las Vegas home last November.

Villalvazo's badly decomposed body was found by state transportation workers on April 30.

Authorities suspected the dead woman's identity after finding she'd had mastectomy and a wrist tattoo of a pink breast cancer ribbon that matched her description, and DNA tests confirmed it.

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