Arrest reveals new details about decomposed body found in East Stroudsburg

Hannah Phillips
Pocono Record

On a Saturday in July, a woman appeared in an East Stroudsburg parking lot with three suitcases in hand. By the following Thursday, police say she lay at the bottom of a nearby dumpster, badly decomposed and stashed beneath one of the suitcases.

New details about the events that led to her death have emerged following the arrest of 22-year-old Corbin DeSimone. Stroud Area Regional Police combed through about a week's worth of surveillance footage from cameras surrounding GAK Construction on Washington Street to piece together what happened.

Related:A body was found in a dumpster in East Stroudsburg. See a timeline of everything we know

The following timeline uses excerpts from witness interviews and descriptions of surveillance video provided by the Monroe County district court.

Saturday, July 17, 2021: The woman and DeSimone meet.

A woman, whose name authorities have not made public as of Aug. 5, met DeSimone at GAK Construction, where he is said to have been living, Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

"The female has with her three suitcases, one of which appears to be the suitcase that was later found on top of the decedent's body," SARPD detective Dan Knowles wrote in a criminal complaint Tuesday.

Sunday, July 18, 2021: The woman is seen alive a final time.

DeSimone and the woman met with a female drug dealer around 1 p.m., detectives said. DeSimone introduced the woman as "his girl," and bought heroin from the dealer. 

The woman entered DeSimone's room in GAK Construction at 1:02 p.m. and never came out again.

Monday, July 19, 2021: DeSimone is seen alone.

DeSimone invited the drug dealer to return and do drugs with him. He was alone this time, the dealer told police. When the dealer asked him where his girl was, DeSimone replied: "That is not my girl. She left."

Thursday, July 22, 2021: The body is found.

At 1:30 a.m., DeSimone dragged a suitcase from a closet through the garage inside of GAK Construction. He exited a side door facing the lot and dumpster next to the building.

"DeSimone is obviously struggling with the suitcase," detective Knowles wrote. It appeared that "what is inside is extremely heavy."

While no security cameras faced the dumpster, a camera inside the garage showed DeSimone returning inside 10 minutes later without the suitcase. He cleaned the area of the floor where the suitcase had been dragged.

Caution tape blocks off a crime scene in East Stroudsburg where a woman's body was found in a dumpster next to the Salvation Army on Washington Street on Thursday, July 22, 2021.

Employees at GAK Construction noticed a "horrible smell" somewhere within the building. They searched the building for what they thought was a dead animal and found blood and bodily fluid staining the inside of a closet.

They noticed the flies next, swarming near the back of the dumpster. An employee opened the back door of the dumpster and saw the woman's legs sticking out from beneath garbage and debris. They called the police at 11:53 a.m.

The county District Attorney's Office, Coroner's Office and Pennsylvania State Police Forensic Science Unit assisted SARPD in recovering the body, which was too badly decomposed to discern height, weight or race.

The drug dealer heard from the news that the body of a woman was found "and immediately suspected it was the female DeSimone was with," Knowles wrote. 

The aftermath: An investigation begins. 

An autopsy of the body the following day could not conclusively say who the woman was or how she died, the county coroner reported. SARPD began pulling footage from surveillance cameras, and medical examiners submitted the woman's DNA for forensic testing.

Police took the drug dealer into custody on July 31 on an outstanding warrant and interviewed her about the incident. She said she ran into DeSimone a few days after the body was discovered and asked him what happened. He replied: "She overdosed, and I didn't know what to do," the dealer said.

DeSimone was arrested and charged with using a cell phone to facilitate a drug purchase, abusing a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. He was denied bail and arraigned before a district court on Tuesday.

SARPD Police Chief Jen Lyon said they believe they know the identity of the woman but are waiting from confirmation from the coroner's office before making the information public. Chief Deputy Coroner Maurice Moreno said Wednesday he is "fairly confident" they will be able to verify her identity within a week. Lab results to determine exactly how she died are expected to take longer.

Some questions remain unanswered, like why DeSimone resided inside of GAK Construction and how the woman's body became so decomposed in less than a week. Lyon said the investigation is still ongoing, and she was unable to provide additional details so as not to jeopardize the integrity of the case.

"We want justice for the victim above all else," she said Thursday afternoon.

DeSimone's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 17 at 11 a.m. under Magisterial District Judge Michael Muth.

Hannah Phillips is the public safety reporter at Pocono Record. Reach her at