LAGRANGE COUNTY – The body of a missing LaGrange County woman has been positively identified.
Dental records show the body found in a field near Ann Arbor earlier this month is that of 58-year-old Catherine Sackrider. Sackrider was reported missing September 24 after visiting family in Ohio. Her truck was found the next day in Sylvania, Ohio. Sackrider lived along Wall Lake in LaGrange.
The last murder there was back in 2005. Neighbors are shocked. They say Sackrider was a nice woman and can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt her.
The community along Wall Lake is a close-knit, safe one.
"We always thought that this neighborhood down at Wall Lake was a safe environment," said neighbor Frederick Cumings.
But that sense of security has been shattered.
"You're just devastated," said Cumings. "You don't think that it's gonna happen in your community, but by golly you know it does. It can happen anywhere to anybody in any community."
Cumings lives just a few doors down from Sackrider's home. Sackrider's body was found in southeastern Michigan on November 9.
Investigators positively identified her body on Tuesday.
"Lenawee County Sheriff's Department, they're the ones that located the body, they contacted us, they stated that they did not have any missing person's cases in the area," said Detective Stephanie Mickem with the LaGrange County Sheriff's Dept.
Sackrider was last seen leaving her daughter's home in Sylvania, Ohio September 18. Her truck was found abandoned in Sylvania seven days later, a day after she was reported missing.
"It's just devastating to us down here in this area, because we've never even locked our doors before all this went on," said Cumings.
Detective Mickem told WSBT that Sackrider did not have a history of disappearing. Cumings said that before she went missing, someone broke into Sackrider's home and stole a cell phone.
