Police Identify Victim In Gruesome Murder As Mother Of Three

Police: It Appears Woman Was Dumped After Being Killed Somewhere Else

POSTED: 4:06 pm EDT March 22, 2010
UPDATED: 6:51 am EDT March 24, 2010

ATLANTA -- Police have identified the woman whose body was found dismembered in northwest Atlanta as a mother of three.

At a news conference Tuesday night, Atlanta police identified the victim as 44-year-old Linda Myrick of DeKalb County.

Myrick's body was found Monday afternoon on Elm Street near Joseph E. Boone Street. Investigators said it appeared the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped at the site. The body was found by a passerby who called 911, officers said.

A police detective said the woman's head and both hands were cut off.

Atlanta police took cadaver dogs Tuesday to the vacant lot where her body was found in northwest Atlanta.

Atlanta Police Major Keith Meadows told reporters investigators with the Fulton County Medical Examiners Office were able to identify the body through a series of medical procedures.

Meadows said investigators still haven't determined how the woman was murdered, of if she was the victim of a sexual assault.

Investigators have interviewed the victim's mother but have not yet spoken to any of her three adult children.

Jamilah Garth said she would often cut through the vacant lot as a short cut.

She said Monday afternoon, her friend was doing the same thing when she stumbled upon a woman’s naked and mutilated body.

Garth said, "This is a very dangerous neighborhood. Everybody needs to be careful. That’s why I keep some mace on me."

Garth said her friend called police immediately after she found the body.

Garth said, "She went up to it and kicked it. She just started screaming."

Meadows says Myrick was known to frequent a business area near Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive.

From: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/22911764/detail.html?hpt=T2