A Philadelphia woman who had married her wife in May was found dead on Valentine’s Day on a rural roadside near Penn State.
Ferguson Township police said Wednesday that Corinne Pena, 35, was found along Plainfield Road early Sunday morning. She had apparently been there a few hours, said Police Chief Diane Conrad. Police are still in the process of determining her whereabouts prior to her arrival in the township.
“We don’t have any indication that she walked there on her own,” Conrad told PGN on Thursday. “We’re not aware that she lived here, or if she had, for how long. We’re looking for any connection she had to the area.”
On what appears to be Pena’s Facebook page, she posted about her May 23 wedding to a woman from Lancaster.
“We’re working on a place together,” a comment, apparently from Pena, said on the post.
The Facebook page also said Pena had studied electrical engineering at ITT Technical Institute.
Conrad said she couldn’t confirm if police had sought out or spoken with Pena’s wife because the investigation is still active. She added she didn’t have an indication on whether anti-LGBT animus exists in this incident.
Pena’s death is being considered suspicious and police are awaiting toxicology results.
“There were no apparent signs of trauma on the body,” Conrad said. “The autopsy confirmed that. The cause of death is not immediately apparent.”
She said one scenario might be hypothermia because of the frigid temperatures over the holiday weekend. She declined to comment on what Pena was wearing when her body was discovered.
Anyone with information is asked to call Ferguson police at 800-479-0050.