Authorities in Vallejo, California, discovered the body of 29-year-old Renia Lewis hidden behind a concealed wall inside a home, just days after an initial search of the property turned up nothing.
Lewis had last been seen Friday. Police said they first searched the home on Sunday after evidence suggested she had been there before her disappearance. Officers conducted a walkthrough of “all rooms, closets, and places a person could hide,” but found no trace of her.
Detectives returned with a search warrant on Tuesday and discovered her body hidden behind a false wall leading to the attic.
“You would miss it because my baby girl was hidden behind a wall,” her cousin, Latoya Lewis, told KTVU. Family members described the residence as resembling a hoarder’s house.
That same day, police arrested 41-year-old Douglas Irwin Shaw at his workplace. According to investigators, Shaw gave a statement admitting responsibility for the crime. He has been charged with murder and booked into Solano County Jail. Authorities have not yet clarified the relationship between Shaw and Lewis or revealed how she was killed.
Lewis’ family had been actively searching for her in the days she was missing, even locating her cell phone on the roof of a nearby school. Her mother, Teri Lewis, said she collapsed when told her daughter’s body had been found.
“On our way there I was praying,” she said. “I just prayed, ‘God, please don’t let it be her.’ And He didn’t answer my prayer.”
Fighting back tears, she added: “He needs to sit there and suffer for my daughter because she didn’t deserve this.”