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A New York grandmother who vanished without a trace while visiting Las Vegas earlier this month has been found dead, her family announced Friday.
Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother of five, was reported missing Aug. 10, two days after she was last seen leaving a friend’s apartment near Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue, according to her family and a missing person report obtained by KLAS-TV.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police responded early Thursday after a caller reported a “deceased woman in a drainage ditch area near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport,” according to KTNV.
NEW YORK GRANDMOTHER VANISHES IN LAS VEGAS AS FAMILY GETS MYSTERIOUS TEXTS FROM HER PHONE ASKING FOR BITCOIN
Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother from New York, was found dead near Harry Reid International Airport after disappearing while visiting Las Vegas earlier this month. (FOX5 Vegas KVVU; Facebook)
Officers located a woman who was later identified as Goods and pronounced dead, the outlet reported.
“Our hearts are broken. We were notified that my aunt was found—unfortunately, not the way we wanted her to be,” Goods’ niece, Alana Calloway, said in a statement provided to the station.
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Goods is a resident of New York and was visiting a friend in Las Vegas at the time she disappeared. (Facebook)
“This is an unimaginable time,” the statement continued. “Words cannot describe the pain our family is experiencing right now. We just want to thank the public for the outpouring of love, support, and prayers. We also want to thank the media for helping bring attention to this situation. This hurts so deeply. We are still trying to learn the details surrounding her death. We ask for continued prayers and privacy as we grieve.”
Police reviewed surveillance footage that appeared to show Goods “falling down an embankment, getting back up and then collapsing” on Aug. 8, the day she disappeared, with “no further movement observed after that,” according to KTNV.
SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR AUSTRALIAN WOMAN WHO VANISHED AFTER SENDING MESSAGE ABOUT GOING FOR A HIKE NEAR LAS VEGAS
The daughter of a New York grandmother who vanished while visiting Las Vegas nearly two weeks ago has traveled across the country to search for her mother, checking hospitals and morgues as the family grows increasingly desperate for answers. (Facebook; FOX5 Vegas KVVU)
Additional surveillance video from that day showed a woman believed to be Goods near the airport that afternoon, the station reported.
Digital has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for additional information.
Goods had been staying with her longtime friend Roger John, who told KLAS-TV that she left his apartment around 12:45 p.m. Aug. 8 to take a bus to a nearby CVS to buy iron pills but never returned.
“Last I saw her, she was going down the stairs. And I said, ‘OK, see you later,’ And that’s the last time I saw her,” John told the station.
John said he was not immediately alarmed because Goods sometimes spent hours shopping. When she failed to return, however, he began calling and texting her before contacting her family.
“This is not like her to just go missing,” Calloway previously told the outlet. “She has a family that loves her, cares about her. We want her home and want her home safe and alive.”
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A missing persons flyer for Alisa Goods is seen posted at an intersection in Las Vegas. (FOX5 Vegas KVVU)
The mystery surrounding Goods’ disappearance deepened when her family said they began receiving unusual text messages from her phone on Aug. 12, four days after she was last seen.
The sender allegedly asked for gas money and Bitcoin , requests that raised suspicions because Goods did not drive and did not have a car in Las Vegas, according to her family.
“I said, ‘What do you need gas for? The car?’ My aunt does not drive. There is no car,” Calloway told CBS News.
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The family previously said the messages raised concerns that Goods may have been kidnapped. It was not immediately clear Friday who sent the messages.
Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
