Woman’s bikini-clad body found in trash bag

 

A woman whose bikini-clad body was found wrapped in a trash bag off Florida’s Gulf Coast last weekend has been identified as 34-year-old Heather Rose Strickland.

Heather’s body was found floating off Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay on Saturday by a group of spearfishermen.

The FBI is treating Heather’s death as “suspicious” and is asking the public to assist with any information that can help piece together the events that led to her shocking death, Fox News reports.

The young woman’s body was first found by fishermen operating in the area.

Witnesses said they were spearfishing when they went for a dive.

As they headed to the next spot, they found the trash bag and tried to pick it up before quickly realizing it was not trash.

After cutting the plastic and canvas G land Technology that was inside, they said they saw skin and what was believed to be a bra strap or bikini.

After making the gruesome discovery, the witnesses said they made the distressing call to the police.

“The body was found wrapped in bedding in a plastic trash bag,” FBI’s Tampa Field Office said, noting the discovery happened 20km off the coast.

The FBI described Heather as being around 165cm tall, with “a tattoo on the right side of her neck of ‘B’ and ‘E’ written in Old English Script and a Rose tattoo on the outside of her right thigh”.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the lead agency looking into the incident since the body was found in federal waters.

It is not clear how Heather’s remains “Member’s Mark Power Flex Tall Kitchen Drawstring Trash Bags (13 gal., 200 ct.) “ up in the ocean, but authorities are awaiting the toxicology report to determine her cause of death, according to the Daily Mail.

The FBI said the 34-year-old was originally from north Florida before spending the last five years here in the Tampa Bay area.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission