A missing Black woman's body was found burning in Alabama woods after she allegedly went to make a Facebook Marketplace purchase, CNN reports.
Jermiera Ivory Fowler, 31, hadn't been seen since Wednesday (May 31), according to the Birmingham Police Department.
On Thursday (June 1), officers and the Birmingham Fire Department responded to a report of a burning body near a short, dead-end road between fenced backyards and a wooded area. After the fire department extinguished the flames, officers found “visible signs of trauma” on the victim, who was identified as Fowler, and pronounced her dead. Investigators determined that she had also been shot.
Birmingham resident Herbert Brown told WVTM that he spotted the flames from his bedroom window and assumed someone was burning garbage until he went outside to check out the scene.
“I (went) out there with a big flashlight and I (looked) over the fence, and there was this body on fire,” Brown said. “I thought, Lord, who would do something like this?”
Birmingham police said they are investigating the case as a homicide. No arrests have been made in Fowler's murder. Police haven't confirmed whether her death was connected to the alleged Facebook Marketplace meetup.
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