LONG ISLAND, NY — Ronald Schroeder has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and sex crimes in connection with the death of Seikeya Jones, a 33-year-old woman found dead inside a suitcase in September.
Schroeder, 41, was arrested last year and previously charged with concealing a corpse and multiple drug offenses. Last week, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced new charges against him for allegedly engaging in forcible sexual acts with Jones while she was unconscious.
According to a statement from the prosecution, Schroeder then fell asleep on top of the victim, causing her death. The defendant was arrested in Manhattan in September 2024 after Suffolk County police found the partially decomposed remains of a woman stuffed in a suitcase in a wooded area across from an apartment complex in Huntington Station.
Officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of a “foul odour” in the area and found the victim, later identified as Jones, in a fetal position with her wrists and ankles bound, prosecutors said. An autopsy concluded the cause of death was asphyxiation due to torso compression.
Jones was last seen alive on August 29 with Schroeder at the apartment building near where she was found dead. The suspect was arrested approximately a week later at the LIRR lost and found office in Manhattan’s Penn Station.
Investigators say Schroeder was there to retrieve his backpack, which allegedly contained an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a potent central nervous system depressant often referred to as a “date rape drug.”
A video found on his phone allegedly showed him “sexually assaulting the victim while she was unconscious and then falling asleep on top of her, causing her death,” according to prosecutors.
Last Wednesday, Schroeder pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail pending trial. He is due in court on June 20 and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the main charge, according to the Daily News.