MISSING COLLEGE AREA WOMAN WAS HOMICIDE VICTIM: BODY FOUND NEAR PECHANGA CASINO

By Miriam Raftery

October 14, 2017 (San Diego) – The body of Alexandria Nicole Smith, a 30-year-old resident of the college area near San Diego State University, has been found wrapped in a blanket alongside a road near Pechanga Casino close to the Riverside County line.

The Medical Examiner has ruled her death a homicide. Cause of death was asphyxiation. The body was clothed and partially decomposed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Smith left the home she shared with her mother and young daughter around 11 p.m. on October 2^nd in her grey 2015 Toyota Corolla. The red-haired woman with brown eyes, a peacock tattoo on her back and star tattoo on her chest, was wearing a blue sweater and jeans when last seen. 

Her mother believed she had gone to a party in National City. Her car was later found parked in Temecula.  After she failed to return home the next morning and did not go to work, her mother reported her missing. 

A person searching through a dumpster for recyclables in Vista found her cell phone in the trash, charged it and called Smith’s mother. National City Police launched a search for the missing woman who has suffered from depression and has a history of drug use, her family told police.

Learning that she frequented casinos, detectives visited every casino in the region and discovered her body near the Pechanga Casino and Resort.

The Union-Tribune reports that police have questioned persons of interest, but no arrest has been made.

If you have information, call National City Police dispatch at (619) 336-4411 or email Detective Ken Springer at kspringer@nationalcityca.gov.