Atlanta police have launched an internal investigation regarding surveillance video that could have helped investigators track moments leading up to an airport employee’s disappearance and death.
Atlanta police admitted Friday they failed to follow proper protocol in preserving the footage that showed Shanequa Sullivan leaving her job at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport before her disappearance, Channel 2 Action News reported. She was found dead March 4 in the Yellow River in Newton County.
“Our investigators should’ve secured all surveillance video of Ms. Sullivan once she returned back to the airport, but that did not happen,” Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said in a statement to Channel 2. “We are opening an internal investigation to determine why that video was not secured.”
Footage owned by the department that is not part of an active investigation is held for 14 days before it is recycled, Atlanta police Officer Stephanie Brown told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But airport surveillance is held for much longer.
“Our policy is to keep the video for 28 days, then purge and recycle it,” airport spokesman Andrew Gobeil told The AJC.
Campos said his department has located some video of Sullivan, but it does not track all of her movements.
Sullivan, who was autistic, was reported missing Feb. 4 and was last seen at the North Terminal at the airport, where she worked for ABM Janitorial Services. Partial surveillance video showed the 23-year-old from Forest Park attempting to enter MARTA from the airport about 3:30 p.m. that day, but her Breeze card was not working.
Her body was found a month later nearly 40 miles away. She was also wearing a different set of clothes.
The cause of death has not been released, but Sullivan’s family suspects foul play and have said she was a creature of habit.
“I want justice. I want them to find out the person or persons who are responsible for the demise of my granddaughter,” Sylesta Seabrum said. “She wouldn’t harm anyone. She didn’t have a fighting bone in her body.”
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