The body of a New York grandmother who went missing while visiting Las Vegas earlier this month has been found, her sister told CBS News New York. Police later confirmed that 63-year-old Alisa Goods was found dead in a drainage ditch near Harry Reid International Airport.
Goods went missing on Aug. 8 after she left a friend’s apartment to take a bus to CVS. She never returned and was reported missing on Aug. 10. Two days later, her family began receiving messages from her phone asking for bitcoin, help and gas money.
Goods’ sister told CBS News New York on Friday that Goods’ body had been found and that the family would be flying out to Las Vegas.
In a news release later Friday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that early Thursday morning just before 2 a.m. local time, officers were dispatched to a report of a deceased woman discovered in a drainage ditch area near the airport.
They arrived and found the woman, later identified as Alisa Goods, police said.
Surveillance video from the airport of that area from Aug. 8 showed Goods falling down an embankment, getting back up, and then collapsing, according to police.
“There was no further movement observed after that,” police said. “Her location could not be seen from the street.”
There was no word on a cause of death. CBS News has reached out to the Clark County coroner’s office.
Her family previously said that Goods had visited Las Vegas before and it wasn’t uncommon for her to take the bus to her destinations. Goods’ daughter, Kristen Goods, told CBS News that her mother had undergone several surgeries that made it more difficult to walk on this specific trip.
“From what I understand with the temperatures there, it’s extremely hot, so it’s hot and she can’t walk,” Kristen Goods said.
Goods’ niece, Alana Calloway, previously told CBS News that the request for gas money had set off alarm bells, as her aunt does not drive. She said that was when they considered the possibility she may have been kidnapped.
After her disappearance, her family said they contacted local hospitals, jails and the coroner’s office, but turned up no leads. Kristen Goods told CBS News earlier this week that she traveled to Las Vegas hoping to find answers.
“I am hoping to God for the best, but my heart can’t take what it could be, which is the worst,” Kristen Goods said.
In a statement on a GoFundMe page Friday, the family said that Goods was “deeply loved.”
“Her absence leaves a space in our family that can never be filled. We are doing our best to navigate this loss together and to celebrate the life she lived, the people she loved and the memories she left with us,” the statement read.
