Who was Destini Smothers? Michigan mom's body found in car trunk after she went missing post fight with boyfriend
QUEENS, NEW YORK: A woman was found dead in the trunk of a Toyota Camry with no plates in Queens on Wednesday, March 10, and investigators believe she is a 26-year-old mother from Upstate New York who went missing in the five boroughs after a birthday party in November 2020.
The police department has stated that they still have to confirm the identity of the woman found in the trunk on 134th Avenue through forensic tests, but they believe the body is of Destini Smothers. A senior NYPD official with direct knowledge of the case has said that the clothing on the body matched what Smothers was wearing when she was reported missing. Her ID was also on her, the official said.
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The body was in a fetal position inside the trunk. The senior NYPD official told News 4 that the car had been abandoned with no plates and parked on 134th Avenue for "a while" before sanitation trucks came to pick it up Wednesday. People living nearby have said that the car had been parked there for months, and say abandoned cars in that area is very common.
Officers revealed that the truck crew drove off with the vehicle, then noticed a problem with a tire and pulled over on Lefferts Boulevard to pop the trunk to look for a new one. Police said the truck made it to South Ozone park when the body was found.
Smothers, the mother of two children was a resident of Troy, Michigan, she came to Queens in November 2020 to attend a funeral but went out two nights before that service to a local bowling alley to celebrate her 26th birthday. No one saw her again after that.
According to a report by NBC, Smothers had left Troy, which is just north of Albany, with her longtime boyfriend, who later told Smothers' family the two got into an argument when they were in Smothers' black 2011 Toyota Camry. At some point during that fight, the boyfriend said Smothers got out of the car and walked off, leaving her purse, wallet, keys and ID behind. "He actually got in my car and took me to where he said she jumped out in Astoria. Took me and my family," said Tima Fowler, Smothers' cousin. "I don't understand how he did that. But he did it and we found the car, the car is found now, she's found."
Since that drive, Smothers' family reported that the boyfriend has gone missing. It wasn't clear if the Camry where the body was found Wednesday was the same one Smothers owned. The body in the trunk was fully clothed with no signs of trauma. The medical examiner will determine a cause of death.
Smothers' children are currently staying at her mother's home in the Bronx. The family got concerned when Smothers didn't show up there to pick up her clothes for the funeral she planned to attend November 5. “She loves those children and would do anything for them,” aunt Shareen King told Dateline, back in November. “She wouldn’t just leave them. And there’s no way in hell she’s not calling her mama. My sister is just devastated.”