Paige Coffey disappeared in 2019 after days without contact with relatives.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Human remains found April 17 in a vacant Cleveland home have been identified as Paige Coffey, an Ohio woman reported missing nearly seven years ago after she failed to contact her family.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains, Bratenahl police said April 29. Coffey was 27 when relatives reported her missing on May 17, 2019. Her cause and manner of death remain pending, and authorities said the investigation is active.
Coffey had been living in Bratenahl when she disappeared. The FBI said she was last seen May 7, 2019, with her boyfriend at a Home Depot at Steel Yard Commons in Cleveland. Investigators later said her silence was unusual because she did not normally go long without contacting family or friends.
Her mother, Trinettea Williamson, told Dateline before the remains were identified that she last saw Coffey in late April 2019. Williamson said she had given her daughter a ride to work, later picked her up and dropped her off at an Oakwood Village gas station. She said Coffey texted the next day asking to borrow $30 and said she was doing OK.
Williamson said she became worried when Coffey did not call on Mother’s Day. Bratenahl police opened a missing person investigation days later. In a 2020 appeal, police said investigators believed someone in the community had information that could help answer where Coffey was.
The remains were found at a home on East 142nd Street in Cleveland. Local reports said the property was vacant and being cleaned out when the discovery was made. One station reported the remains were found inside a garbage bag. Officials have not announced whether they have identified a suspect.
The nonprofit Cleveland Missing said Coffey’s family had been notified and asked for privacy. The group said Coffey was loved and would be missed, and thanked people who had shared her missing person flyer and kept attention on the case.
The FBI had offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Coffey’s location or recovery while the case remained unsolved. Authorities have not said whether any reward information helped lead to the discovery or identification.
The case now moves from a missing person search to a death investigation. The next major step is a ruling from the medical examiner on how Coffey died and whether her death will be classified as homicide, accident, suicide, natural causes or undetermined.
Author note: Last updated Thursday, April 30, 2026.