Murder probe after body found in trunk

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The boyfriend of a missing North Side woman was arrested Wednesday evening in New York after police found a body in the trunk of his car.

Jeshawn Elliott, 37, was arrested by Niagara Falls, N.Y., police after they were notified by Youngstown police Wednesday afternoon that Elliott may have been there with the missing woman, identified as Anvia Mickens.

As of Wednesday night, the body had yet to be identified, Youngstown detective supervisor Lt. Doug Bobovnyik said.

Officers were called by Mickens’ mother after Elliott’s brother called her and police to say that Elliott may have harmed her daughter.

Police searched Elliott’s Outlook Avenue home on Youngstown’s North Side at about 4:45 p.m., calling on firefighters to break down the front door because it was locked. Firefighters also wrenched open a garage door.

Officers then went to the Bradley Lane home where Mickens lived with her mother and called in detectives and a crime scene team.

As they were doing that, police got word that Elliott was in Niagara Falls, and sent word to police there, who found his vehicle in a parking lot and found the body of a woman in the trunk.

Bobovnyik said a picture of Mickens was sent to Niagara Falls police to help identify her.

Police in both jurisdictions are investigating the death of the woman found in the trunk as a homicide, Bobovnyik said.

He would not say if any signs of a struggle were found in the Outlook Avenue home.

Police found Mickens’ car in a parking lot behind International Towers at 25 Market St. on Central Square. Bobovnyik said Mickens worked downtown.

The car was towed for evidence, but a member of the department’s crime lab searched it first and walked away from it carrying a paper bag.

Bobovnyik said police are not sure if the woman found in the trunk of Elliott’s car was killed in Youngstown, Niagara Falls or somewhere in between.

A spokeswoman for Niagara Falls police said no one was available to comment Wednesday evening, and Mickens’ family declined comment.

A large number of people were gathering in her front yard.

If the woman in the trunk was killed in Youngstown, the death would be the 13th homicide in the city this year.

Police are still waiting for a cause of death for a woman whose body was found in a home freezer last month.

Youngstown had 18 homicides in 2016.