Blood trail leads police to woman’s body inside NW Atlanta apartment

The body of a 23-year-old woman was discovered inside a northwest Atlanta apartment Friday morning after police followed a trail of blood from a nearby gas station.

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

The body of a 23-year-old woman was discovered inside a northwest Atlanta apartment Friday morning after police followed a trail of blood from a nearby gas station.

A trail of blood from a northwest Atlanta gas station led police officers to a grisly discovery at a nearby apartment complex Friday morning.

The officers were called to an Exxon station at the corner of West Lake Avenue and Joseph E. Boone Boulevard to investigate a report of a person shot. There, they found a man with multiple gunshot wounds about 2:50 a.m., according to Atlanta police Lt. Daniel Genson.

“After he got transported to Grady Hospital, they followed his blood trail to a nearby apartment complex,” Genson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the scene. “They located the apartment where the blood trail was coming from, made entry into the apartment to clear it, to make sure everything was safe in there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.”

Inside the apartment, officers located a second gunshot victim, 23-year-old Diamond O’Neal, dead of her injuries. They also found a baby who did not appear to be injured, Genson said. The child was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding Hospital.

Atlanta police said they were focusing on the two scenes Friday morning and had not identified any obvious suspects.

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

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Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

The condition of the male victim wasn’t immediately available Friday and it’s unclear what led to the shootings. O’Neal’s death is the 64th homicide for the city in 2021, a 58% increase over this time last year.

Investigators recovered several shell casings between the two crime scenes, but they did not locate a weapon. It was not immediately clear how the two victims were connected.

“We have a lot of really strong leads,” said Genson, who heads the police department’s homicide unit. “We just need to vet everything, make sure everything is what it is. I feel good about this investigation, the direction it is headed.”

— Please return to Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.