Officials ID Woman Found In Schuylkill As 19-Year-Old Atlantic City Mother
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Atlantic County officials have announced that the body of a woman found in the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia Tuesday is that of a 19-year-old Egg Harbor Township woman who was abducted from a home in Atlantic City in March.
A Philadelphia medical xxaminer performed an autopsy on the victim Wednesday morning and Nadirah Ruffin was positively identified.
The family of Ruffin held out hope, but is said to have come to terms with never being reunited with the missing mother, who had a four-year-old son. But questions still linger, according to their lawyer, as they try to make sense of it all.
"Why this happened? How this happened? Who was responsible for this?" Attorney James Leonard Jr. said.
According to sources, police have figured out a motive and believe Nadirah was targeted. At this time, police have not released the details.
In the meantime, the Ruffins told Eyewitness News, Nadirah was at her cousin's Atlantic City home with four other women when four masked intruders forced their way in and for reasons unknown to them, only Nadirah was taken out of the home at gunpoint.
That was on the evening of March 26th.
Valerie Levesque reports...
Sources say Ruffin's body was badly decomposed and her face was covered with duct tape and one of her ankles was handcuffed.
Leonard went onto explain the family's reaction. "They're happy, I think, in one sense they're going to get some closure. But I think their focus at this point is going to be seeing to it that this investigation continues."
The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office has assumed control of the investigation.
Reported by Elizabeth Hur, CBS 3
