A missing Minneapolis woman was found dead Tuesday evening in the backyard of a vacant home on the city's North Side.
Relatives identified her as Amber Hopkins, just hours after passersby spotted her body under a pile of debris.
Hopkins, 31, was five weeks pregnant when she disappeared Jan. 14. Loved ones say she was struggling with heroin addiction at the time and was thought to be squatting inside some abandoned homes in north Minneapolis. Her mother filed a missing persons report after she failed to contact immediate family members and could not be reached on her phone.
"It's a vicious world out there," said her aunt, Jaime Brown. "And it spits some people out."
Distinctive tattoos — including feathers, her children's names and footprints — helped identify her, Brown said. She leaves behind four young children, who live with their father in Mexico.
Officers responded to the area of N. 36th and Dupont avenues just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, where they found her body along the rear fence.
"We're treating this as a crime scene," said police spokesman John Elder. He did not know if her body had any signs of trauma.
Jeff Kemper was painting a home across the alley when a man ran up yelling that he'd found a body. Kemper said he went to investigate and called 911 after finding the woman curled up beneath piles of debris, wood and leaves. Snow had melted all around the body and he fears she may have been there — unnoticed — for some time.
