Missing California woman found dead behind ‘secret wall’ inside home, police say
October 1, 2025
2,632
The body of a woman who had been reported missing for days was found hidden behind a “secret wall” in a Northern California home on Tuesday, according to authorities.
Renia Lewis, 28, was last seen Friday and was reported missing Sunday before her body was found behind a “concealed entry into the attic” of a Vallejo home, the Vallejo Police Department announced in a news release.
The search for Lewis led investigators to a home on 14th street, where officers saw “indications that the missing woman may have been inside the residence at some point before going missing,” so they went inside, the news release said. Officers searched the rooms, closets and places a person could hide but couldn’t find Lewis.
Renia Lewis was found hidden in attic of home.
(Vallejo Police Dept.)
On Monday, police activated an Ebony Alert for Lewis, which is an alert system designed to help find missing Black women and children, and asked for help from the FBI.
On Tuesday, acting on “new investigative information,” officers returned to the home on 14th Street and did a more thorough search, discovering the hidden entry to the attic, police said. Douglas Irwin Shaw, 41, was named as the suspect in her killing and arrested.
Shaw allegedly told detectives that he was responsible for the crime and booked into the Solano County Jail on suspicion of murder, according to the release.
“This was a heartbreaking, senseless act of violence that has no place in our community. I am proud of our officers and detectives for making an arrest and solving this case. Above all, our thoughts are with the decedent’s family during this incredibly difficult time,” Police Chief Jason Ta said in a statement.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
