BOSTON -- Investigators in New York City are hoping surveillance tapes will help them track down whoever raped and killed a Boston woman over the weekend.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the body of Imette St. Guillen, 24, was found in a vacant lot on Fountain Avenue in Brooklyn Saturday night. Her naked body was found covered by a blanket with her head duct taped, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles bound together. Authorities are awaiting autopsy results, but police believe she was strangled and sexually assaulted.

St. Guillen's family did not speak with reporters Tuesday, but did release a statement that read, "We cannot begin to imagine what life will be like without Imette. (She) touched so many lives and it is difficult to try to put into words all of who she was and represents to the people who love her. She was extraordinary in so many ways. We miss her."

Police are considering the possibility that she was the victim of a gang rape.

Investigators have been studying surveillance tapes that show St. Guillen leaving the Pioneer Bar with a friend at 3:40 a.m. Saturday. She then split from that friend at some point and went to another bar. According to an autopsy, St. Guillen was heavily intoxicated at the time of her death.

St. Guillen, who grew up on Francis Street near the Longwood medical-area of Boston, graduated from Boston Latin School in 1999. She moved out of her family's Boston home seven years ago to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She moved to New York City several years ago, where she was a graduate student in forensic studies at John Jay University.

Boston Latin School is working to create a scholarship in St. Guillen's name.