PEORIA, Ill. (AP) – A coroner says a 35-year-old woman whose body was found in a central Illinois ditch was strangled.
The (Peoria) Journal Star reports Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood said Tuesday that an autopsy determined Inita Thomas’ death was a homicide.
Thomas’ body was found Dec. 23 along Illinois Route 6, a state highway that runs through Peoria. Harwood says it isn’t known who placed her body in the ditch or how long it was there before it was discovered.
If the death is investigated as a murder, it would be the 23rd murder case in Peoria in 2018. That could tie the modern-day high for the annual number of murders, which was set in 2010.
Harwood said there were no obvious signs of trauma when Thomas’ body was discovered.
