METRO VANCOUVER - Mere minutes before she disappeared early Saturday, Rachel Pernosky was active on various social media accounts — posting Instagram photos of herself and tweeting about incidents on the streets of her Mission hometown.

The teen’s body was found about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday — dumped down a steep embankment near the Fraser River in Chilliwack — and police say the social media websites she frequented may be key to finding her killer.

“Rachel was just 18 years old and a mother of a baby when her life was brutally taken from her,” said Sgt. Jennifer Pound, spokeswoman for the RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

Pound said those responsible for her murder have “left a hole in the lives of those who loved her” and a child without his mother.

Pound said Pernosky had no history of running away and her disappearance baffled her friends and family. There were no signs of forced entry at her home, she said. The attack appears to be targeted and other women in the area shouldn’t be concerned, Pound added.

Neighbour Leila James recalled seeing Pernosky outside her front door on the 7700 block of Mission’s Kite Street having a friendly smoke and a drink with a man in a baseball cap around 12:30 a.m. Saturday. James, who was also outside having a cigarette with her husband Brent, said “nothing made us think that we needed to phone the police — they looked like they were just having a friendly conversation together.”

By 1 a.m. James looked back outside and saw the pair were gone.

When Pernosky disappeared from her home — leaving her purse and cellphone — her one-year-old son Marco was with his father. The father is not a suspect at this time and, though investigators have several persons of interest and are interviewing a number of people, they don’t have any suspects yet, Pound said Wednesday.

Insp. Richard Konarski, head of the Mission detachment, said Mounties began investigating Pernosky’s disappearance as a missing person case at about 6 p.m. Saturday.

They notified IHIT immediately, in part because Pernosky’s usually prolific social media output halted, Konarski said.

Mission RCMP initially deployed almost half its officers — 25 — in the search, hoping to find her alive, Konarski said. “I think (for) anyone who’s a parent, the thought of losing a child is probably the worst thing you can possibly imagine.”

A passerby spotted Pernosky’s body off Old Orchard Road near Chilliwack Mountain and called police, who required help from search and rescue to remove the body.

An autopsy is expected Thursday to confirm the cause of death. It’s unclear whether the young woman was murdered at the scene or if her body was just dumped there, Pound said.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page dedicated to searching for Pernosky turned to a page of mourning Wednesday, as dozens of messages of condolence were posted shortly after IHIT confirmed on Twitter that her body had been found.

Pernosky’s sister Brittany wrote, “we did our best,” referencing the search effort.