Paige Coffey remains identified in Cleveland, nearly seven years after disappearance

Nearly seven years after Paige Coffey disappeared from the Cleveland area, the question of whose remains had been found in a vacant house has been answered. The harder questions remain: how Coffey died, whether anyone is responsible, and what evidence can turn a missing-person case into a prosecutable crime.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains as Coffey, and Bratenahl police announced the identification on April 29, 2026. Coffey was last seen on May 7, 2019, near Steelyard Commons in Cleveland, reportedly leaving a Home Depot. She was 27 years old when she vanished, and her family reported her missing that May after she failed to make her usual Mother’s Day contact.

The remains were found on April 17 inside a vacant home in the 3800 block of East 142nd Street on Cleveland’s east side, during a cleanout for a new owner. Police said the remains were located in the garage, and county medical examiner records listed the place of death as in a garbage bag. That detail resolves one chapter of the case, but it does not explain what happened between Coffey’s disappearance in 2019 and the discovery in 2026.

Authorities say the investigation remains active and ongoing, and the FBI is involved. Bratenahl police and federal investigators are asking anyone with information to call the FBI at 216-522-1400. For Coffey’s family, the identification ends years of uncertainty about whether the search could still produce an answer, but it also deepens the loss by fixing her final resting place in a location tied to a criminal investigation.

Coffey’s case had already drawn national true-crime attention through Dateline Missing in America, which helped keep her name in public view while her family searched for answers. The family also worked with the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults as the case unfolded. After the identification, the family thanked everyone who helped search for Coffey and the media outlets that kept her story alive.

What comes next is the decisive milestone investigators still need: a cause and manner of death. Until the medical findings and investigative evidence line up, Paige Coffey’s case remains what it has been for nearly seven years, a missing-person mystery with a confirmed victim but no public answer yet on who, if anyone, is responsible.