By Avis Thomas-Lester and Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; B03

The nude body of the Prince George's County woman who disappeared Friday was found yesterday in Baltimore in the trunk of her car, and police said she had been slain.

The body of Sintia Mesa, 25, of Chillum was found in her silver 2004 Toyota Solara near an apartment complex in northwest Baltimore, police there said.

Signs of trauma were found on Mesa's body, Detective Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman, said last night.

He said it was too early in the investigation to determine a motive in her killing. It was not clear where Mesa had been killed, Moses said, but Baltimore police were handling the investigation.

Mesa apparently had not been seen since she left a hair appointment Friday in the Randallstown area of Baltimore County.

According to Moses, Mesa's car was spotted by someone who had seen a news broadcast with a report of her disappearance. The neighborhood where the car was found is in the extreme northwest corner of the city, less than a mile from the border with Baltimore County.

Moses said city police made the identification after conferring with police in Baltimore County and gathering other information. He said police subsequently contacted Mesa's family. Relatives could not be reached for comment last night.

A guard at the bank next to the Coco Brown Beauty Salon, where Mesa had the hair appointment, reported seeing her car drive away just after 2 p.m. Friday, but she never made it to a nail appointment in nearby Reisterstown, said her sister, Claudina Mesa.

Police said Sintia Mesa's cellphone and some of her personal effects were found in a dumpster.

Claudina Mesa said she last spoke to her sister about 6 a.m. Friday. The night before, the women had eaten dinner at their parents' house in Chillum, where Sintia has lived for seven months.

"She was in good spirits," Claudina Mesa recalled yesterday before the discovery of her sister's body. "We ate dinner and looked at old pictures with my parents until late. She did some laundry with our mom. That was the last time we saw her."

Claudina said the last person to speak with Sintia was her boyfriend, who talked to her while she was having her hair done.

Friends grew concerned when she had not contacted them by late afternoon. She also missed a mandatory meeting at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa near Baltimore, where she works, Claudina said.