MAR 12, 2021
Grieving family of woman found dead in trunk of abandoned car in Queens seeks closure and answers
The heartbroken mother of an upstate woman found dead in the trunk of a car in Queens joined loved ones for a vigil Thursday night while investigators searched for clues about the grisly disappearance and murder.
[...]
“We went everywhere. We went to Maryland. We went to Pennsylvania. We were searching on the sides of the highway. We even reached out to spiritualists,” said cousin DFW “We’ve done all that we could. We want done right by Destini.”
[...]
“She is in disbelief,” MW said. “Her heart is broken. She is distraught. Destini is her first daughter. She was her confidant and best friend. They were like twins. They even looked alike.”
Smothers, who lived in Troy with her boyfriend Kareem Flake, the father of her two sons, had traveled to Queens to attend a funeral for Flake’s grandmother, relatives said.
[...]
Williams said officials told the family that Smothers was found wearing camouflage pants when she was found, the same type of pants she was wearing when she disappeared.
Flake didn’t attend Thursday’s vigil, and has mostly cut off contact with Smothers’ family — though on Wednesday, he
participated in a Zoom call with his and Smothers’ two young sons, [names redacted] the dead woman’s family said.
“When they asked about their mother, he said, ‘They are putting things in your head,’ and hung up on them,” said Smothers’ cousin, LF.
LF, 42, went to the scene where the car was found, but police wouldn’t let her look at the body.
“She was unidentifiable. They had to identify her through dental records, fingerprints and her tattoo,” Fowler said.
The tattoo, on her right wrist, was her boyfriend’s name.
[...]
