Missing woman found in Salem River was 'a sweetheart,’ cousin says

Ever since she was a kid, Jenuita Lobster looked up to her cousin Vanessa Smallwood.

While Lobster was climbing rickety fences and playing with the boys, Smallwood would hang back, quiet and reading a book.

Only months apart, the younger Lobster — a self-proclaimed troublemaker — always wanted to be just like her cousin.

“Even when we were kids, Vanessa was a sweetheart,” said Lobster. “Vanessa is a few months older than I am, but in the back of my mind, I wanted to be like Vanessa. I just didn’t know how.”

On Thursday, police identified Smallwood as the woman whose skeletal remains were found in a mangled Chrysler wrested from the Salem River. The discovery was a tragic end to what had become a Salem County cold case, as Smallwood had been missing since 2014.

While an exact cause of death has not been released, there was no indication of a crime, according to the Salem County prosecutor.

On Feb. 6, 2014, Smallwood was reported missing, having last been seen on Jan. 27 outside of a dry cleaning business on Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill, authorities said at the time. Smallwood’s husband had gone into the dry cleaners while she waited outside in a 2005 Chrysler minivan, according to reports at the time.

When her husband came out, Smallwood and the minivan were nowhere to be found. The last lead in the ensuing investigation was a cell phone ping in Clayton, Gloucester County, the day she vanished.

For Lobster, who grew up with Smallwood, finding her cousin six years later was cold comfort, with one loop closed and other threads now left unraveled.

“We still don’t honestly know exactly what happened,” she said. “We wanted some form of closure. So we have that. We know she’s no longer here with us.”

As children, Smallwood and Lobster’s parents would take them to church every Sunday, said Lobster. For Smallwood, faith was an anchor and she clung to it into adulthood, she said. As an adult, Smallwood’s passion for religion would drive her to become an evangelist.

As an evangelist, Smallwood inspired people with her testimony, said Lobster, with one person writing to her after Smallwood’s confirmed death remembering the impact her words alone made.

“She was saying that Vanessa was a wonderful evangelist,” she said. “And Vanessa actually spoke at her mother’s funeral and she had people in tears.”

At the time of her disappearance, Smallwood was unemployed, living in her parents’ home with her three adult sons, said Lobster. After Smallwood’s mother died and her father suffered strokes, Smallwood grew sick, she said.

Lobster confirmed that Smallwood had vied with mental health issues, but declined to comment further on them.

The last time Lobster saw Smallwood was two days before the last time she was seen by anyone. On January 25, along with two other friends, Smallwood and Lobster gathered in Willingsboro to reminisce and talk about relationship problems and life.

Smallwood was not happy with her marriage, Lobster said, and the four talked about finding their Boaz, a wealthy, altruistic landowner in the Bible who marries Ruth, a widowed woman working in one of his fields.

“He was a good man from the Bible,” Lobster said. “And that was our conversation. When were we going to find our Boaz.”

Smallwood, assured in her faith, spoke her last words to Lobster before they parted ways.

“Her statement was she knows her Boaz is out there. And she’s going to find him,” said Lobster.

As of Saturday, services for Smallwood had not been scheduled. The family was waiting for more answers from the coroner’s office and for everyone to gather back in New Jersey to say goodbye.

But for Lobster, the stark reality was simple.

“I miss her,” Lobster said.

Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.

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