Correction: This story has been revised to reflect an update from the coroner's office about Makaila Luckey's correct age, which was 25-years-old at the time of her death.
Investigators have determined the identity of the woman found dismembered in North Fairmount in November 2023, but authorities are again calling for the public's help as her killer remains a mystery.
North Fairmount Jane Doe has been identified as Makaila Luckey, 25, according to the Hamilton County Coroner's office.
In a March 22 news conference, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Kode Sammarco said Luckey was identified after her sister saw a Cincinnati Police Department Facebook post about the case in February and came forward. Investigators were able to run Luckey's name in the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation database where her DNA was on file for an unrelated crime of which she was the victim. Investigators did not provide specifics on how she ended up in this database.
What we know about Makaila Luckey
The coroner's office said Luckey was local to the area, but estranged from her family, who said she had struggled with mental health issues and possible substance abuse disorders. Luckey was 25 years old, born on April 28, 1998, and confirmed to have had a child at one point in time. Investigators said she sometimes went by Kayla or her nickname, "Bubbles."Luckey's family told investigators that she frequented the West End neighborhood, and that she was last seen alive in Lincoln Heights getting on a Metro bus to head downtown.
Sammarco declined to answer questions about the cause of Luckey's death, something the coroner's office has said they know but are keeping close to the chest as the investigation continues. Investigators do believe it was likely the killer knew Luckey, saying her murder and dismemberment was "meticulous."
Photo: Aidan Mahoney
Luckey's torso was found by a passerby in this abandoned wooded lot about 100 feet off Baltimore Avenue in North Fairmount.
Police again asking for help
The Cincinnati Police Department is still investigating to find Luckey's killer, asking the public to help identify where she was during her final days in November 2023, and who she might have been with."We are here today looking for any information anybody might have about her, about her whereabouts, the last few weeks of October, the first week of November. Anybody she might have been with, any locations where anybody might have seen her," said Sammarco. "This is still an ongoing investigation. This is still a homicide."
Background on the case
Luckey's dismembered body was found the morning of Nov. 5 in the woods off Baltimore Avenue near Beekman Street. The Cincinnati Police Department responded to the scene after a passerby called to report the remains. The coroner listed her death as a homicide.The ensuing weeks after Luckey (then identified simply as Jane Doe) was first discovered were quiet. Investigators searched for trace evidence, looking for hair, blood, anything that appeared related to the case. Criminalists ran DNA and investigators fielded hotline tips, but the most significant development came two months after she was first discovered.
During a Jan. 3 sweep of the area, Cincinnati's FBI Evidence Response Team was assisting with the search for more body parts when agents discovered a human head two blocks away from the location where the torso was found, further perplexing community members. The coroner confirmed the body parts matched the following week. Though more decomposed than her torso, Luckey’s head gave investigators more information to piece together her identity.
The coroner’s office has determined Luckey was killed not long before her body was discovered the morning of Nov. 5. They estimate her time of death was likely on or around Nov. 3.
Captain Steve Saunders leads the Criminal Investigation Section at the Cincinnati Police Department. He told CityBeat – in his 33 years with the department – this is a first-of-its-kind case.
“I've never seen anything like this,” he said in a previous interview with CityBeat. “I've seen lots of gruesome crime scenes and horrible things that have happened to people, which is bad enough as it is, but to see this level of heinous behavior is disturbing.”
CityBeat explored the social implications behind the mystery of Luckey's death in February, interviewing leading experts in the field of missing and endangered Black women. Read more here:
