Victim identified in east Macon killing

A 63-year-old woman’s body was found in a bloody scene at an east Macon apartment Tuesday afternoon.

Vivian Puente-Napoles was found with a cut wound to her neck inside the bedroom of her apartment on Bowman Street, which is across Emery Highway from the Ocmulgee National Monument.

“Once we looked at the body, we knew it was a homicide,” Bibb County Deputy Coroner Lonnie Miley said at the scene.

Puente-Napoles was found in bed and had been dead at least a day when her body was discovered by staff at First Neighborhood apartments, Miley said. A neighbor had asked the apartment manager to check on Puente-Napoles after not hearing from her in a week.

There was no sign of forced entry and each building is equipped with several surveillance cameras.

The apartments are owned by River Edge Behavioral Health Center and opened in 2012 for “persons in recovery from serious mental illness,” according to the company’s website.

Cass Hatcher, chief of facilities for River Edge, said the 18-unit complex is supportive, permanent housing “for people who were once homeless” and are receiving services from River Edge.

Hatcher said company employees are working with investigators to review surveillance footage.

TaWanda Baker stood on the lawn behind crime scene tape watching as investigators rolled a stretcher inside the apartment.

A former resident at First Neighborhood, Baker said she is a distant relative of the Puente-Napoles, who moved in about two and a half years ago.

“I rang her doorbell two days ago — no answer,” Baker said. “I heard a little noise in there, but I just said, ‘Wow,’ and I just left. Because that’s normally not like her. She would usually yell really loud. She would come to the door. She definitely would.”

Baker said the Puente-Napoles had a husband in Florida and was “trying to get herself together. ... I was told that she was struggling. She was having some issues and she was doing bad.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Victim identified in east Macon killing."