Authorities in two states are investigating whether a decomposing body found in the Schuylkill River yesterday morning is that of a 19-year-old mother kidnapped after a brutal Atlantic City home invasion March 26.
A bicyclist called 911 at 10:35 a.m. yesterday after seeing the body in the water along Martin Luther King Drive halfway between the Art Museum and Route 1. There was a handcuff on one ankle and duct tape on the face and torso.
Said FBI spokesman Brian Travers: “We are looking at it, and working with police in Atlantic City and Philadelphia.”
On March 26, Nadirah Ruffin, 19, was forced from an apartment in Atlantic City’s troubled “Back Maryland” neighborhood at gunpoint by four masked people who ransacked the place and duct-taped Ruffin and others. According to the Press of Atlantic City, “a crying Ruffin was driven away as she begged to be spared for the sake of her 4-year-old son, Jahlil.”
At a press conference, Deputy Police Chief Ernest Jubilee said they “had several persons of interest” and the local FBI supervisory special agent Darryl Bazemore noted, “there is an assumption that there might be some interstate travel.”
A post on the “Nadirah Ruffin Support Group” Facebook wall said Atlantic City police were en route to Philadelphia to identify the body.
