A 37-year-old mother from Holland, Ohio, has been found dead on top of a train carriage in Elkhart, Indiana, more than 100 miles from home, prompting police to launch a murder investigation. Brittany Ritter went missing between 1 and 2 September after last being seen riding a bicycle, and her family reported her disappearance when they could not reach her. Her death has left her two sons without their mother and raises questions about how she came to be on the moving freight train.

Ritter's body was discovered by a Norfolk Southern employee, who reported seeing an "apparently deceased person" on the railcar, and she was later identified through her tattoos and fingerprints. The train had travelled from the east before stopping in Elkhart, and it remains unclear how she ended up on top of it, though police noted she may have been cycling at night when she vanished. Her cause of death is pending an autopsy, but a homicide team is investigating alongside the Elkhart Police Department and the Lucas County Sheriff's Office. A GoFundMe launched by a family member for funeral costs had raised $567 of its $9,000 target as of Saturday afternoon.