Sabrina Pina

Sabrina Pina’s loved ones grasped a sliver of hope on Sunday as they waited for the medical examiner to determine whether a body found in a northwest Harris County ditch is that of the 27-year-old who vanished while shopping this weekend. The Houston woman disappeared Saturday afternoon from a Kohl’s a few miles from her Spring home. Her parents found her pickup, filled with shopping bags, in the parking lot several hours later.

Early Sunday morning, the body of a woman was discovered about a 20-minute drive from the shopping center. Sheriff’s deputies spoke with some of Pina’s relatives at her home Sunday night after dusting her truck for fingerprints. Her husband and parents met with homicide detectives downtown. “I don’t know what to think,” said Jeffrey Armenta, one of Pina’s best friends, after speaking with deputies. “It was the middle of the day. She was four miles from home.”

Pina is the second woman to disappear from a Houston suburb in recent weeks. Police are still searching for 37-year-old Susana De Jesus, who was kidnapped three weeks ago in the parking lot of a Pearland women’s clothing store where she worked. Family members said authorities confirmed Sunday that the body discovered in the ditch doesn’t belong to De Jesus. Pina was running errands Saturday afternoon when she last spoke to her husband: She called him from Home Depot around noon to ask what kind of garbage disposal to buy. The new disposal remained in the back of her truck on Sunday.