Missing woman recently moved to Jacksonville Beach

Searchers find body of woman yet to be identified near neighborhood

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Authorities have not identified the body of a woman found Saturday evening along the Intracoastal Waterway, but the body was found during the intense search for 35-year-old Suzanne Carlson.

Carlson, who lived in the Sanctuary neighborhood along the ICW just north of J. Turner Butler Boulevard, hadn't been seen since before dawn Thursday, when she was knocking on neighbors' doors, acting strangely.

Many in the community fear the worst.

As family and friends waits for identification of the body, News4Jax is learning more about the days and weeks before Carlson's disappearance.

Carlson lived alone in the home on Sanctuary Way. Property records show her fiance owns the house. She worked at a pet store about a half-mile away, and told a co-worker she had moved here from the Midwest only a few months ago. That co-worker described her as being kind and introverted. 

Jacksonville Beach police said offers were called to Carlson’s home in early December for a welfare check after she didn't show up for work for two days after her fiance called off their wedding. 

The fiance is the person who reported Carlson missing. Police said the garage and several other doors to the house were standing open and the shower was running. According to the police report, Carlson turned off her phone or it went dead a few hours after she was last seen in the neighborhood.