A woman’s burning body was found on the side of a dead-end road in Alabama (Picture: Birmingham Police Department/Facebook)
A woman’s body was found burning on the side of a road after going to meet a seller from Facebook Marketplace, police said.
Police in Birmingham, Alabama responded to the gruesome scene on Thursday after residents in a residential neighborhood reported the fire on a dead-end street.
They arrived to find an unresponsive woman, still burning after being set on fire.
‘Birmingham Fire Rescue personnel extinguished the flames, and officers observed visible signs of trauma on the victim,’ Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said.
A medical examiner later determined she had been shot before being set aflame.
They identified the victim as 31-year-old mother Jermiera Fowler, who was reported missing that same day.
Fowler had not been seen since Tuesday, when she left her home to make a purchase arranged on Facebook Marketplace. However, police are unsure if she ever got to the seller.
‘Our detectives are uncovering additional facts that may point to her not having made that meetup,’ Officer Fitzgerald told WVTM-13.
There are no suspects in custody for the grisly murder, police said. ‘If you saw anything or heard anything tonight that would aid our detectives, please gives us a call,’ Fitzgerald said.
This is not the first murder associated with a Facebook Marketplace meetup this year.
In February, an off-duty officer in the NYPD was shot in the head after meeting a Facebook Marketplace seller in Brooklyn, intending to purchase a car.
The officer was identified as Adeed Fayaz, a 26-year-old father of two children, and a five-year veteran of the NYPD.
The young cop was shot once in the head when the seller attempted to rob him at gunpoint.
Fayaz was rushed to the hospital, but died from his wounds days later on February 4.
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A medical examiner later determined she had been shot before being set aflame.