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What happened to the missing woman found dead next to a Baltimore highway?

Aleksandra “Ola” Reeves, a native from Poland, left work suddenly May 23, 2017 and was found dead two weeks later in Baltimore.

Stress at work consumed Aleksandra “Ola” Reeves in late May to the point she could no longer concentrate. So her supervisors sent her home.

But Reeves, 37, didn’t go to her home in Middletown.

Instead, she gassed up her car, made an ominous phone call to relatives and drove to the eastern edge of Pennsylvania where she stopped at two stores and bought sleeping pills.

The native from Poland would never be seen alive again.

Her body was near a busy intersection downtown, just beyond a hole in the fence protecting an embankment over Interstate 83. The area is littered with trash and frequented by homeless people.

An autopsy with recent toxicology results showed she died from an overdose of diphenhydramine, the main ingredient in the sleeping pills.

There were no signs of injury or struggle, police said. She still had $150 cash in her pocket.

But months later, many aspects of her death remain a heartbreaking mystery to her relatives.

While some signs point to suicide, according to the autopsy report, there wasn’t enough evidence to rule her death self-inflicted.

The medical examiner instead left the manner of death for Reeves as “undetermined.”

“While the high level of diphenhydramine can be typical of suicidal deaths,” the pathologist wrote in the autopsy report, “because the circumstances of Ms. Reeves’ death remain unclear, despite police investigation, the manner or death is best certified as could not be determined at this time.”

Since there were no signs of a crime or foul play, Baltimore police closed the case. They already have their hands full with 300 homicides so far this year and many other violent crimes.

But that means they didn’t review surveillance video from nearby apartment buildings or do a full-blown investigation that may have provided more satisfying answers to relatives.

When Reeves’ husband and sister-in-law drove to Baltimore to retrieve Reeves’ car, they were brimming with questions for police.

The case detective showed them where Reeves’ body was found, but when they started asking about the availability of video footage, he quickly shut them down.

“Look,” he said, according to Reeves’ sister-in law Nancy Reeves-Velasquez, “What we have done for you is far more than what we would do for anyone else.”

When PennLive asked to interview Baltimore detectives about the case, the department spokesman said: “We are not granting an interview. It’s not a suspicious death.”

That leaves relatives in the unenviable position of trying to find their own answers. Their questions include:

Relatives previously described Reeve’s job as a sort of auditing position for the company, which administers health care benefits.

The last known sighting of Reeves occurred about 2:30 p.m. on May 23 at a Turkey Hill gas station in Elizabethtown, about 20 minutes east from her office.

Where Reeves spent her next eight hours are a mystery.

Her cell phone was either turned off or the batteries had died. By 11 p.m., she apparently stopped at a Walmart in Glenholden, Pa., near the Philadelphia International Airport.

Was she headed to the airport? She had previously mentioned to her husband that she needed to return to Poland, but she didn’t bring her passport.

At the Walmart, she bought a Mountain Dew and a bottle of generic brand sleeping pills with 50 mg of diphenhydramine.

Next, she apparently headed straight to a Walgreen’s store in Brookhaven, Pa., where she bought melatonin pills, which are a natural sleep aid.

It’s unknown what time Reeves arrived in Baltimore, about 90 minutes away, but she parked in a neighborhood of condominiums near Guilford Avenue and Federal Street.

A parking attendant ticketed her car May 25, but the ticket didn’t sound any alarms with Baltimore police at that time.

Baltimore police did not immediately respond to a request from PennLive to explain but a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman said Reeves’ “missing status” and car information were added to a national law enforcement database on May 25.

Either way, Reeves’ car apparently sat on the street with the ticket on its windshield for nearly two weeks without drawing any additional tickets or notice.

On Tuesday June 6, Baltimore police said they found the car and matched it to Reeves’ missing person report.

Two hundred dollars remained stashed in her glove compartment and $2,200 cash in the back seat.

A few hours later, a homeless man reported her body a few blocks away.

Three days later, the medical examiner confirmed that the partially decomposed remains belonged to Reeves. Toxicology tests were negative for alcohol or any other drugs, but showed 560 mg/kg of diphenhydramine, which is also commonly found in allergy medicine.

Reeves had never showed signs of mental instability before, according to friends and relatives, and she was well-liked at work. She phoned her parents back in Poland every week and loved to tend to her backyard garden.

Her disappearance and the possibility of suicide seem so out of character, relatives say.

Dealing with the death of any loved one can be difficult to accept, experts say, particularly when suicide may be involved and especially when there are so many unanswered questions.

“It very much complicates the grief process,” said Jessica Umbrell, a psychologist from PerformCare who volunteers for the We Matter Mental Health / Suicide Prevention Coalition in Dauphin County.

In August, Reeves’ husband of 14 years flew her cremated remains to Poland for burial in a family plot.

Ola came to the United States about 15 years ago on a work visa and worked at Hersheypark in the security department.

It was there that she met her future husband Michael, who also worked in the security department. The couple wed in 2003 and she had remained ever since in the United States as a legal resident.

Michael Reeves said the pain from losing his wife and best friend was still raw, but he was grateful her remains were found.

“I am thankful I don’t have to wonder what happened forever,” he said. “But as much as I try to accept it. My heart rejects it.”

Michael Reeves said everyone who had interactions with his wife in her final days feels “let down because they didn’t have the right answer at the right time.”

Now, like many grieving relatives after an unexpected death, he’s searching for explanations.

“Do I have complete closure?” he said. “No. Do I think it was handled satisfactorily? I don’t know. Do I think we, as her family, were left to our own questioning? Most certainly.”

At the same time, Reeves admits he’ll probably never have the answers he needs until he makes it to Heaven himself.

For anyone feeling suicidal:

Cindy Richard, founder of Suicide Prevention of York, said feeling suicidal requires help and people feeling suicidal should reach out.

Richard offers free assessments and resources. She can be reached at 717–227–0048.

The National Suicide Prevention hotline is 1–800–273–8255

Suicide is often related to untreated depression, but depression is treatable and so are suicidal feelings, experts say. Suicidal feelings will pass, Richard said, and there are people ready to help.

Each county in Pennsylvania also has a crisis hotline.

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