Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday Globe Special: Rhetorical Question From Roslindale

 “Why would you do that? What would make you kill a person, over what?”

"Roslindale mother found dead at home had been shot in head; Motive behind killing is unclear" by Katheleen Conti  |  Globe Staff, February 03, 2013

The 32-year-old mother found fatally shot in her Roslindale apartment Tuesday was discovered slumped over her bed with multiple gunshots wounds to the back of her head, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation.

The motive behind the killing of Carly Jones, who lived in an apartment on Fawndale Road, remains unclear. There were no signs of forced entry, the officials said.

No arrests have been made and police have not released any more details about the city’s third homicide of the year.

At apartment 3L, where Jones lived with her daughter, the silence inside was interrupted by the chirping of a smoke alarm with a low battery.

Neighbors who knew Jones said she had lived in the apartment for at least two years with her daughter, who is about 11 or 12 years old.

A potted violet orchid and a purple jar candle left on the front porch of the building were the only indicators of the horrific crime that had occurred there just days earlier.

Although located near the Archdale Housing Development, where a man was fatally shot on Christmas Day, Fawndale Road is a quiet, residential street that does not see much violence, several residents said.

Monica Jean-Baptiste, who lives in the second-floor unit directly below Jones’s, said her 13-year-old sister and Jones’s daughter were friends and frequently played together. Jean-Baptiste said she did not know Jones very well, other than exchanging greetings.

“[Jones] didn’t seem like a completely social person,” said Jean-Baptiste . “She’d say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and all that, but that’s just about it.”

Jean-Baptiste said she was at a friend’s house the day of the shooting and was shocked upon hearing the news.

She said she never noticed or heard anything unusual coming from Jones’s apartment.

“The only type of [foot] traffic that I usually see is friends come by or maybe relatives but that’s it,” she said, adding she no longer feels comfortable in the building. “Now it doesn’t even feel like a home, it just feels like it’s a dungeon we have to come to every single day. . . . I don’t want to live here anymore because that makes me feel uneasy and unsafe.”

Pablo and Monica Ovalles, who live across the street, said they have never seen that type of violence in their 17 years there.

“I came from work [Tuesday], went into the house, and it wasn’t until later that we saw the police,” Monica Ovalles said. “We don’t feel safe because we see that the violence is getting closer to here.”

Pablo Ovalles, her husband, said he found the lack of details released about the crime frustrating.

“That’s why we’re anxious, because we don’t know what happened,” he said. “We need to know whether it was a boyfriend, a jilted lover, or a random attack.”

Police responded to the scene at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, but the time of the shooting remains unclear. Jones’s body was reportedly found by a friend, who was dropping off Jones’s daughter from school. The friend saw that Jones’s apartment door was ajar and told the girl to wait outside.

Jean-Baptiste said the friend lives in the third-floor unit next door to Jones. No one answered the door in that unit Saturday morning.

“I hope that little girl and her family gets justice, because whoever did that, they’re cold-blooded,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Why would you do that? What would make you kill a person, over what?”

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