A body found "wrapped in garbage bags" alongside Chef Menteur Highway last week is that of 55-year-old Lisa Gray, who was reported missing just two days before police discovered her remains, the New Orleans Police Department confirmed Tuesday (Sept. 26).
Gray's cause of death -- and whether foul play was involved -- remain under investigation, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office and the NOPD.
Gray's body was found Sept. 19 near the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Old Gentilly Road, about a block from the apartment complex where she lived -- and where she was last seen Sept. 2 by family members, according to police.
When family members returned to check on Gray, she was not there, police said. It was not clear when exactly relatives tried to check on her, but Gray was reported missing to police about 11 a.m. Sept. 17.
The person who reported Gray missing told police that calls to Gray's cellphone had gone unanswered, instead going directly to her voicemail. She had also failed to return calls or contact her family regarding her whereabouts, which her family described as uncharacteristic behavior.
Two days later, an NOPD detective responding to a call about "possible human remains" found Gray's body at the intersection of Chef Menteur and Old Gentilly. That day, the NOPD and the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office would not say whether Gray's body appeared to have any signs of physical trauma.
Tuesday afternoon, police continued investigating Gray's remains as an unclassified death, pending a determination of cause of death by the Coroner's Office, according to NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney.
"Until that determination has been made by the Coroner's Office and the detective over the case can review the information and circumstances of the incident for possible reclassification, the incident is investigated as an unclassified death," Looney said in an email.
"Unclassified death" investigations are launched by NOPD when the circumstances of a person's death "does not immediately lend themselves to police or medical personnel being able to classify how the victim died," including whether foul play was involved, Looney said.
Though the NOPD did not name the complex where Gray lived, officials said she was last seen in her apartment complex in the 14700 block of Chef Menteur Highway, an isolated stretch of Chef Menteur that appears void of housing aside from the Chateau d'Orleans apartments.
The NOPD has investigated two murders at the apartment complex within the past year, including the February fatal shooting of 29-year-old Kayla Bienemy and the July fatal shooting of 25-year-old Devan Smith. Police also investigated two murders at or near the complex the previous year, one in July 2016 and the other in November 2016.
Anyone with information on Lisa Gray's death is asked to call any Seventh District detective at 504-658-6070 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
Staff Reporter Emily Lane contributed to this report.
New Orleans police and the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office were investigating the death of 55-year-old Lisa Gray, whose body was found in the grass near the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Old Gentilly Road in the 14700 block of Chef Menteur, in New Orleans East on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. (Google maps)