PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A 29-year-old woman was found dead in Fishtown less than 24 hours after leaving a nightclub.
Makea Matthews’ family is searching for answers as Philadelphia police and the medical examiner’s office continue to investigate.
Her family says they were told she was frozen to death, but they still have questions about how she traveled from Delaware Avenue to underneath an Interstate 95 overpass more than a mile away on the 2000 Block of Richmond Street.
“Kea was found frozen dead outside, and I’m like, ‘Huh?’ I start screaming,” recalled her sister, Bayyinah Matthews.
According to the family, on Friday, Jan. 23, Makea Matthews went to a nightclub on Delaware Avenue with two female friends but never returned home. Security at the club told the family she was escorted out for being intoxicated.
The family says the friends told them they initially left with Matthews and then went back inside the club to look for something. When they returned, Matthews was reportedly gone.
“Makea would have never been missing if somebody would have stayed with her. She would be alive, right,” Bayyinah Matthews said.
The following day, Matthews’ girlfriend reported her missing at approximately 4:25 p.m. About 20 minutes later, police say an officer responded to the area for a call and located Matthews’ frozen body underneath the highway. That evening, the city was under a Code Blue with below-freezing temperatures.
“They labeled it as hypothermia,” Matthews said. “She has blunt force trauma to her left side of her face and bruises all over her body.”
Desperate for answers, Bayyinah Matthews posted videos to TikTok that have gained more than one million views.
“I went to social media cause I’m like somebody gotta hear this, somebody gotta know about this, somebody gotta get the truth,” she said.
The family says they are also trying to retrace Matthews’ steps on their own in an effort to piece together what happened.
“I’m not stopping until I get my closure about my sister. I need closure,” Matthews said.
Police say Matthews’ death remains under investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Medical Examiner’s Office. Attempts to reach the friends Matthews was last seen with have not yet been returned.
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