A family’s desperate search for a missing New York grandmother has ended in heartbreak after authorities found her body near Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, nearly two weeks after she disappeared.
Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother of five from New York, had traveled to Las Vegas to visit a longtime friend. What initially appeared to be a missing-person case became increasingly troubling when her family began receiving strange messages from her phone asking for money and Bitcoin after she had already disappeared.
Now, investigators are trying to determine what happened to Goods during the final hours of her life, why her phone was apparently being used to send the unusual messages and whether those messages were connected in any way to her disappearance.
Goods was last known to be at her friend Roger John’s apartment near Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas on August 8. According to John, she left the apartment at about 12:45 p.m., telling him she was going to a nearby CVS to purchase iron pills.
She never returned.
At the time, there was nothing to suggest to her family that the short trip would become the beginning of a desperate search across Las Vegas.
Goods was officially reported missing on August 10, according to a missing-person report obtained by local media. Her daughter and other relatives began trying to determine where she might have gone, checking hospitals and other locations as concern over her whereabouts grew.
Then came the messages.
According to her family, texts began arriving from Goods’ phone after she had disappeared. Some reportedly asked for gas money, while others involved Bitcoin. The messages immediately raised questions because Goods did not have a car in Las Vegas, and her relatives did not believe the messages sounded like something she would normally send.
The strange communications added another layer to an already confusing disappearance.
Her family began wondering whether someone else had access to her phone.
The possibility became even more concerning as the search continued without any sign of Goods.
Her daughter, Kristen, traveled across the country in an effort to find her mother. Relatives checked hospitals and morgues while others helped distribute information about the missing woman.
Goods’ niece, Alana Calloway, later described the family’s reaction after authorities contacted them with devastating news.
The family had been hoping for her safe return. Instead, they learned that Goods had been found dead.
Police responded early Thursday, August 20, after receiving a report about a deceased woman in a drainage ditch area near Wayne Newton Boulevard and the Terminal 1 parking garage at Harry Reid International Airport.
Officers located the woman and later identified her as Goods.
The location was significant because investigators had already obtained surveillance footage showing what appeared to be Goods near the airport on the day she disappeared.
According to police, video from August 8 appeared to show Goods falling down an embankment. She was then seen getting back up before collapsing again. Investigators said there was no further movement visible after that point.
Additional surveillance footage reportedly showed a woman believed to be Goods in the airport area later that afternoon.
The footage has given investigators a possible timeline for what happened, but it has not yet answered the most important questions surrounding her death.
Authorities have not publicly released the cause or manner of death.
That means it remains unclear whether Goods died as a result of the fall seen on surveillance video, suffered a medical emergency, became injured for another reason, or whether another person played a role.
Police have also not publicly identified anyone as a suspect in connection with her death.
The mysterious messages from Goods’ phone remain another unresolved piece of the case.
Her relatives have said they believe the messages were suspicious, particularly because they were sent after she disappeared and included requests involving money and Bitcoin. At this stage, however, authorities have not publicly confirmed who sent those messages or whether they were connected to Goods’ death.
That distinction is important.
A suspicious message does not by itself establish that Goods was kidnapped or that another person was responsible for her disappearance. Investigators will need to determine when the messages were sent, where the phone was located at those times, whether the device changed hands and whether digital evidence can identify the person who used it.
For the family, those unanswered questions make an already painful situation even more difficult.
They had spent days hoping that Goods would somehow be found alive. Instead, the search ended with her body being discovered in an area near one of the busiest airports in Las Vegas.
Calloway said the family was devastated by the discovery and thanked the public and media for helping bring attention to the search.
The family has asked for privacy as they try to process the loss and learn more about what happened.
Goods was remembered not simply as a missing person, but as a grandmother, mother and loved one whose family traveled across the country looking for her.
Her disappearance had already attracted attention because of the unusual circumstances surrounding her final known movements. She had reportedly left a friend’s apartment in the middle of the day for what was expected to be a short trip to a nearby CVS. Surveillance later placed a woman believed to be Goods near the airport, several miles away from the apartment.
Now investigators are working backward through those final hours.
They will need to establish exactly when Goods arrived near the airport, what happened before she entered the area, whether she was alone and what caused her to fall or collapse.
They will also have to determine what happened to her phone during the period after she disappeared.
Those questions could become especially important if investigators determine that the Bitcoin and money-related messages were sent by someone other than Goods.
For now, authorities have released only limited information about the investigation, and no public conclusion has been made about how Goods died.
The discovery has nevertheless brought an end to one part of the case: the search for the missing grandmother.
The larger mystery remains.
Why did Alisa Goods leave her friend’s apartment and end up near the Las Vegas airport? What happened after she arrived there? Who, if anyone, was using her phone afterward? And why were messages involving Bitcoin being sent to her family?
Those questions remain unanswered.
As investigators continue reviewing surveillance footage and other evidence, Goods’ family is left waiting for the information they have been seeking since the day she vanished.
They now know where she was found.
What they still need to know is how she got there — and what happened in the hours between her disappearance and the moment her final movements were captured on camera.
For a family that spent nearly two weeks searching for a loved one, the discovery brought an answer they never wanted.
But the circumstances surrounding Alisa Goods’ death remain an open investigation.
And until authorities determine exactly what happened near the Las Vegas airport, the mystery surrounding her final hours is far from over.