Written by WCPO’s Taylor Weiter and Valerie Lyons
One man is in custody after police said they found his girlfriend dead inside her apartment in Independence.
Police said officers conducted a welfare check Thursday around 4 p.m. on a woman who had not been at work in multiple days. When they arrived, the woman’s boyfriend opened the door and officers found the woman dead.
“This is a new one for us,” Independence Police Capt. Brian Ferayorni said. “We haven’t had a murder in a very long time.”
The boyfriend admitted to killing her, police said. He was taken into custody and will be charged with homicide.
The murder comes as a shock to the normally quiet neighborhood of Somerset Pond.
Leanna Rottenberger is the property manager’s daughter and her apartment sits across from the crime scene. She said she never expected the man to be capable of committing such a crime.
“It was nuts,” she said. “He was a very sweet guy. He helps around the apartment complex. I mean, he does everything for a lot of people — very nice guy.”
Ferayorni said the coroner will determine the woman’s exact cause of death, but he suspects she could have been killed well before the welfare check.
“We don’t have the exact timeframe of the death but it’s possibly more than just today,” he said.
Police said next of kin has not been identified so names have not yet been released.
