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AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The family of Nicole Diane Coleman, 23, is hoping Austin Police will find a break in the case they need to identify her killer. Coleman's Grandmother, Jillian Coleman Wheeler said the last time she saw her granddaughter was Christmas Day. After that Coleman stopped answering her text messages.
Around 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, a man riding a bike saw a body in a wooded area along the 7000 block of Ed Bluestein Boulevard. When investigators arrived they found Coleman, naked and said she had "obvious trauma."
"Nicole was a valuable person and had a lot to offer the world and it's a great tragedy that someone just treated her as an object and took her away from us,” Wheeler said. "A violent death is so painful for us to contemplate that she died in fear and pain and that someone else ended her life it's really hard for us to think about."
The native Houstonian is one of three children.
She came from a close knit family, was an avid writer and suffered with mental illness.
Wheeler said she was visiting friends in Austin when she submitted herself to a local medical facility. When Coleman was released she was staying in a small group home for women.
How long Coleman’s body was in the woods is unknown. Police are not releasing her cause of death at this time. They are asking for the public's help with any information on Coleman’s case.
"We want to do everything we can to assist the police and let people know and be conscious of looking out for the man or men who did this. We don't want another family to have to go through what we are going through now," Wheeler said.
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