A Long Island man arrested last year after the body of a woman was found in a suitcase is now facing manslaughter and criminal sexual act charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Ronald Schroeder, 41, had previously been indicted on charges of concealment of a corpse and multiple drug offenses after his arrest in September in connection with the gruesome discovery.
On Wednesday, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced that Schroeder was additionally charged with one count of manslaughter and two counts of criminal sexual act for allegedly engaging in forcible sexual acts with 33-year-old Seikeya Jones while she was unconscious.
According to prosecutors, Schroeder ultimately fell asleep on top of the victim, “resulting in her death.”
The defendant was arrested in September 2024 after Suffolk County Police found “the partially decomposed remains” of a woman stuffed in a suitcase in a wooded area outside an apartment complex in Huntington Station.
Officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of a “foul odor” in the area and found the victim, later identified as Jones, in the fetal position with her wrists and ankles bound, prosecutors said.
Jones was last seen alive on Aug. 29, 2024, with Schroeder, police said. While he couldn’t immediately be located for questioning, he was arrested about a week later at the LIRR Lost and Found office at Manhattan’s Penn Station.
Investigators say Schroeder was there to retrieve his backpack, which allegedly contained an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB — a powerful central nervous system depressant often referred to as a “date rape drug.”
A video found on his phone allegedly depicted him “sexually assaulting the victim while she was unconscious and then falling asleep on top of the victim, causing her death,” prosecutors said.
An autopsy conducted by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia due to torso compression and smothering.
On Wednesday, Schroeder was arraigned on a superseding indictment charging him with one count of manslaughter and two counts of criminal sexual act.
He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail pending the case.
He is due back in court on June 20 and faces up to 25 years if convicted on the top count.