Slain roommate leaves behind 5 children

Two days ago, Lanaetria Renee Butler told her mom over the phone she was hoping her ex-boyfriend would let her see the couple’s three children.

That was the last time Lanorita Butler would hear her oldest daughter’s voice.

Lanaetria Butler, 28, and a roommate, 34-year-old Karida Winkler, were each found with a single gunshot to the head Sunday morning at their apartment in the 3100 block of Godby Road, College Park Police Spokesman Sgt. Eddie Atkins said.

A third roommate discovered the bodies of the two women when she returned home from work around 9:41 a.m., Atkins said. One of the women was found in the dining room, and the other in the kitchen. Police found no signs of forced entry, Atkins said.

Police continue to investigate the execution-style murders, searching for possible suspects and motives.

“We don’t have anything as far as suspects right now,” Atkins said Monday.

It was Lanaetria Butler’s ex-boyfriend who called her family in Jacksonville, Fla., with the news of her murder.

“He said, ‘A boy that knows me and Renee told me Renee had gotten killed,’” said Elizabeth Butler, Lanaetria’s grandmother. “He was crying when he called me.”

Lanaetria Butler left the Jacksonville area about five years ago and moved to Atlanta, according to her mother.

Last year, pregnant with her fifth child, she called her mother.

“Mommy, would you please come get the children,” Lanorita Butler remembers Lanaetria asking. Lanorita Butler still has the oldest children, ages 7 and 6 in her custody.

Now the five children have lost their mother. The youngest will turn a year old next month.