Investigators said a body found Thursday in a 55-gallon drum at a storage facility in Plymouth Township is that of a 22-year-old Warren woman missing since June, and Warren police said her boyfriend is the prime suspect in her disappearance.
Police Chief Jere Green said the body is of Theresa DeKeyzer and was identified through tattoos, earrings and the clothing she was wearing in a photo that was taken when she was the victim of domestic violence June 15.
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Mary Mazur, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, confirmed this afternoon that the body is that of a decomposed female and that an autopsy is under way. She said that this weekend a forensic dentist would compare the teeth to dental records in an effort to formally identify the remains.
A post on the Facebook page of DeKeyzer’s sister, Leah, stated the family received confirmation that DeKeyzer had been found.
“We have suffered a terrible loss and we appreciate all of the love, prayers, and support during this time,” according to the post, which asked the news media to respect the family’s privacy and let them “grieve in peace.”
“Theresa, hug dad for me,” read a post on the Facebook page for DeKeyzer’s sister, Sandra. “I wish I could’ve said goodbye to either of you. Rest in paradise my love.”
Police had issued a news release this morning mentioning the discovery of the barrel and detailing the search for the missing woman.
Warren police executed a search warrant Thursday at Travel Trailer Storage on Ann Arbor Road, finding a body inside a barrel that was believed to be folded in a somewhat fetal position and wrapped in plastic. On top of the body, there was a plug or cap made of several inches of cement, with everything covered with plastic and wrapped with duct tape, Warren police said.
Warren Police said the barrel and its contents were taken to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. A cause of death has not been determined, Warren police said.
Leah DeKeyzer, a sister of DeKeyzer, told the Detroit News that Warren police notified her family of the discovery.
A post on the Facebook page of DeKeyzer’s sister, Sandra, earlier today said that she was “holding out hope still that this is a false alarm — feeling broken.”
“What I do know is this is a nightmare, no matter what the outcome,” according to one of her earlier posts. She filed a later update that read: “Whether it’s you or not, I will never stop fighting.”
There is some discrepancy in the reports of when Theresa (Tree) DeKeyzer was last seen. A pair of missing-person flyers indicate she was last seen about 6 a.m. June 16 after being dropped off and the last call from her cell phone was at 9:30 a.m. that day.
Warren Police, however, followed up on a number of reported sightings of DeKeyzer after June 16. In one instance, two employees at a medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit claimed that she had been there on June 23, although that lead “met with negative results.”
Police also said the last outgoing call from her cell was actually at 8:27 a.m. on June 16 from Detroit.
But on Thursday, after police received two separate tips, a Warren Police detective contacted Doris Temple, manager of the storage facility, saying he needed access to the locked location. Later in the day, police from departments that included Westland and Plymouth Township arrived.
Police were looking at an enclosed trailer “like you would put a car in,” she said, noting that the trailer was later removed.
“I’ve never had anything like this happen, and it’s kind of frightening for me,” Temple said.
Warren Police noted that DeKeyzer had reported being the victim of a domestic assault by her boyfriend, Scott Wobbe, 37, of Westland the evening before she disappeared. Wobbe later told investigators that the last time he saw DeKeyzer was at 6 a.m. June 16 when he had dropped her off at her request at Van Dyke and 9 Mile, which is just blocks from where the missing-person flyers said she was last seen. She was reported missing by her family three days later.
Wobbe was sentenced July 24 for violating his probation on charges in Midland County of resisting and obstructing a police officer and drug offenses from April, and is being held in the Midland County Jail.
Wobbe had been in Wayne County until July when he was arrested after Warren Police found drugs in his home after they went to talk to him about a domestic violence incident, according to Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.
On July 2, investigators went to Wobbe’s job in Garden City to interview him and arrested him on charges out of Midland County. The same day, police searched Wobbe’s home in Westland and found evidence unrelated to DeKeyzer’s disappearance. In August, warrants were authorized charging Wobbe with drug offenses from July 2 in 18th District Court in Westland.
Temple recalled renting the storage spot to a man in June. She declined to provide his name but said the name was not Wobbe.
Green said that police are looking at at least one other person involved in the case.
Warren Police Detective Sgt. Stephen Mills said Wobbe and DeKeyzer dated on and off for almost three years. Neither Wobbe nor anyone else is charged in connection with DeKeyzer’s disappearance. Jurisdiction on the case has not been determined.
Green earlier said everything pointed to the body being DeKeyzer’s “which is sad. It would be worse if we never found her.”
Earlier today, DeKeyzer’s uncle, Ron DeKeyzer, said he was holding out hope. He said his niece worked a good, full-time job as a manager at a Tim Hortons, was a good and responsible person and a “beautiful young girl with her whole life ahead of her.”
