Woman slain at east Macon apartments

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

"Once we looked at the body, we knew it was a homicide," Bibb county deputy coroner Lonnie Miley said at the scene on the 600 block of Bowman Street, just off Emery Highway.

Bibb County sheriff’s Lt. Randy Gonzalez said the woman had a cut on her neck.

The woman 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 the woman after not hearing from her in a week.

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

River Edge Behavioral Health Center owns the apartments, which 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 slain woman 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 woman was “trying to get herself together. ....I was told that she was struggling. She was having some issues and she was doing bad.”

For more on this story, return to Macon.com and read Wednesday’s Telegraph.

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Woman slain at east Macon apartments."