9-month pregnant woman found dead in Florida state park
Felicia Jones, who was expecting a baby boy on Oct. 8, was found dead Saturday morning at Riverview Park
A pregnant woman, due to give birth in just a few weeks, was found dead in a Florida state park.
Felicia Jones, who was expecting a baby boy on Oct. 8, was found dead on Saturday morning at Riverview Park—a local state park in Jacksonville.
The person who discovered Jones told police that they discovered an unresponsive woman. When officers arrived, Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I want Jacksonville to come together on this. We can’t let this go. We can’t let this slide. We need everybody to come together,” said Jones’ aunt, Angelica Williams, to First Coast News. “This is a whole unborn baby ready to be born in two weeks. A beautiful young lady who just turned 21 this month.”
“Felicia, better known as Fee Fee, she was a beautiful person inside and out. She had that bubbly spirit. Even if she was going through something, you wouldn’t be able to tell because she was that type of person where she had a lot of strength. She was super excited about being a first-time mom,” Williams said.
“We want to let the world know that she was loved,” Williams said. “Her baby was expected. We wanted this baby. I was super excited about my nephew. All of that has been taken away from our family, so we’re distraught right now.”
The family has started a GoFundMe to help pay for the funeral costs of Jones and her unborn child, Ma’Kailand.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told reporters that they are treating Jones’ death as a “suspicious death with foul play suspected,” however, they have not released further details.
Jones’ family just wants to know what happened to their loved one. “We’re not taking it well right now,” Williams said. “We want answers. We want to know why. We don’t understand who would do such a disgusting crime. It’s sickening.”
The CDC notes that homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant women, but is not often seen as a “pregnancy-related death.” The American Journal of Public Health published a study noting that the CDC and local states “must improve their efforts to collect complete and accurate data on pregnancy-associated deaths. This is a critical step in the prevention of pregnancy-associated mortality from all causes.”
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