Missing New York grandmother found dead near Las Vegas airport

A 63-year-old grandmother from New York City who vanished while visiting Las Vegas was found dead in a drainage ditch near Harry Reid International Airport, authorities said Friday, ending a search that had alarmed her family after relatives received unusual messages from her phone asking for money.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said officers were called shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday after someone reported a deceased woman in a drainage ditch area near the airport. The woman was later identified as Alisa Goods, police said. NBC News reported that police described the identification of the remains as preliminary.

Goods, who was from Brooklyn, disappeared Aug. 8 while visiting a friend in Las Vegas, her family has said. Her niece, Alana Calloway, said Goods had been headed to a pharmacy before she went missing. CBS News reported that she had left a friend’s apartment to take a bus to CVS and never returned. She was reported missing Aug. 10.

Police said security camera footage from Aug. 8 showed Goods falling down an embankment near Wayne Newton Boulevard, getting back up and then collapsing. “There was no further movement observed after that,” police said, according to CBS News. Police said her location could not be seen from the street.

Her body was found near a parking structure, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. No cause or manner of death has been released. CBS News said it had reached out to the Clark County coroner’s office.

The discovery followed days of confusion and fear for Goods’ family. Relatives said that after she disappeared, someone using her phone number sent messages asking for help in the form of bitcoin, CashApp transfers, gas money and other assistance. Calloway previously told CBS News that the request for gas money was especially alarming because her aunt did not drive.

Police have said they believed the messages may have come from scammers using “spoofing” technology to make it appear as though they were texting from Goods’ number. NBC News reported that police said they did not believe Goods was in danger at the time.

Goods’ family had searched for answers by contacting local hospitals, jails and the coroner’s office, but they initially found no leads. Her daughter, Kristen Goods, told CBS News earlier in the week that she traveled to Las Vegas hoping to find out what had happened.

“I am hoping to God for the best, but my heart can’t take what it could be, which is the worst,” Kristen Goods said before her mother’s body was found.

Family members said Goods had visited Las Vegas before and that taking the bus was not unusual for her. Kristen Goods told CBS News that her mother had undergone several surgeries that made walking more difficult during this trip.

“From what I understand with the temperatures there, it’s extremely hot, so it’s hot and she can’t walk,” she said.

Calloway said Friday that the family is grieving.

“Our hearts are broken,” she said in a statement. “Words cannot describe the pain our family is experiencing right now. We just want to thank the public for the outpouring of love, support, and prayers.”

In a statement on a GoFundMe page Friday, the family said Goods was “deeply loved.”

“Her absence leaves a space in our family that can never be filled. We are doing our best to navigate this loss together and to celebrate the life she lived, the people she loved and the memories she left with us,” the statement said.