Shanequa Quanee Sullivan: 23-Year-Old Woman Found Dead In Atlanta-Area River
Shanequa Sullivan, 23, of Forest Park, Georgia, was reported missing on February 4, 2018. Her body was found in early March in a river 40 miles away. Police are still investigating the case.
Update: In August 2018, a cause of death has finally been assigned to Shanequa Sullivan, whose body was found in a river in March 2018. The Newton County Coroner has listed the cause of death to be "homicidal violence."
That means that Sullivan was murdered and that this is an ongoing homicide case.
Original story below:
For more than a month, Celeste Seabrum prayed that her granddaughter would be found safe after disappearing in the Atlanta area in early February.
Seabrum was the one who called authorities and told them her baby, Shanequa Sullivan, was missing. On Friday, March 9, 2018, authorities called the older woman and told her tragic news: Sullivan was found dead.
A fisherman had reported seeing a body in the Yellow River, located about 30 miles from downtown Atlanta in Newton County.
"She said we found her in the Yellow River," Seabrum told WXIA-TV, recalling what authorities told her. But how did Sullivan, who lived in Forest Park, end up in Newton is anyone's guess.
"Oh, that was wrong what they did to her; it was wrong, it was wicked," she told the TV station. "She wouldn't hurt a fly."
Sullivan, who was on the autism spectrum, worked at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the world, so authorities really had no idea where to even start looking for the 23-year-old woman when she was reported missing in February.
She was last seen at a MARTA bus terminal, part of her route to her job.
“She is a creature of habit, whatever you teach her, she is going to follow that routine,”Seabrum told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is like the earth just swallowed her whole."
Meanwhile, Pat Campbell, the fisherman who found the body, said the incident spooked him.
“I motored over it, and I saw the heel of a person, and initially thought it was a mannequin. I got downwind of it and could tell it wasn't a mannequin and that's when I said it's time to call 911,” he told WSB-TV.
Authorities now have to figure out how Sullivan ended up 40 miles away from her home. And who is responsible for her death.