A 20-year-old woman reported missing Sunday in Alabama after she sent a message to her family saying she was being held hostage has been found dead on a roadside in Birmingham, according to the Birmingham Police Department.

The victim, identified as Mahogany Jaquise Jackson of Jasper, Alabama, was found in southwest Birmingham by a passerby, who called 911 around 2:19 a.m. Monday, police said.

"When officers arrived on the scene, they observed the victim lying unresponsive on the side of the road, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound," said the police in a Monday news release.

Suspects have been taken into custody but haven't been formally charged, police Sgt. LaQuitta Wade told USA TODAY.

"We would like to point out that the victim and suspects were friends and acquaintances," Wade said. "This horrific crime was not a random act of violence."

The investigation is ongoing and the department will share updates as they are made available, she said.

While the officer did not specify how many suspects have been taken into custody, a local news outlet AL.com reported that three women and three men were detained in connection with the case.

When was Mahogany Jackson reported missing?

Jackson was declared a missing person by the Birmingham Police Department around 11:15 p.m. Sunday.

Police said that Jackson was last seen the previous day in a black shirt and blue jeans with a blonde wig.

They said that Jackson had texted a family member earlier in the day around 7:30 a.m. and "has not been seen or heard from since that time."

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Jackson was being 'held hostage,' family says

Meanwhile, Jackson's mother Gail Maddox, in a post on Facebook on Sunday around 3:15 p.m., said that her daughter texted her in the morning saying "she was being held hostage."

Maddox said that her daughter sent her details of her location and asked her to send the police.

While the police did not detail if they went to the location, AL.com reported that family members rushed to Jackson's reported location at an apartment along with the Birmingham police, but that she was nowhere to be found.

The apartment's resident, a woman Jackson knew, was initially reluctant to let the police and the family in. She later allowed them inside and told the police that Jackson had been there but left around 2 a.m. The family told AL.com that they did not see Jackson at the apartment.

Maddox did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for a comment.

The police have requested anyone with information on the incident to contact the department's Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.