HOUSTON — Family members of a woman whose body was found in a northeast Houston ditch earlier this week are finding it difficult to believe she is gone.
Houston police identified the victim as Yadira Peña Castillo, 38, on Wednesday, the day after she was found dumped on the side of Beaumont Highway near the 610 Loop.
Castillo had been reported missing and hadn't been seen since Feb. 18, according to HPD.
The victim's husband said Castillo's 10-year-old son lives with her mother in Cuba.
"It's been very hard. She was a really good person, a really good soul," Laurent Silva-Cassiano told us. "She cared about everybody, about her friends, about her family."
He said Castillo was very family-oriented and she called her mother every day to check on her son.
Silva-Cassiano lives in Las Vegas and said his wife had been working in the nightclub business in Houston. She went back and forth between the two cities, her husband said.
A passerby spotted Castillo's body Tuesday and called 911. According to investigators, there was no sign of trauma and an autopsy is being done to determine how she died.
"I'm pretty sure they're going to figure out what happened to her, who did something so evil to her," Silva-Cassiano told us.
HPD said they identified the victim through fingerprints.
KHOU 11 News reporter Jason Miles is working to learn more. He'll have an update at 5,
