Deputies: Rockdale County woman's death 'suspicious'

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Landlord McNeal Freeman was devastated to learn Loretta Goolsby was murdered.

“I was extremely hurt. Not only was she a tenant, and a good tenant, we were friends”, Freeman told FOX 5’s Deidra Dukes.

The woman’s body was discovered in a locked bedroom of her home on Lester Road on Friday.

Freeman wishes he’d acted sooner when he was unable to reach the 58-year-old woman by phone on April 6. She hadn’t paid her rent, which was unusual.

“She didn’t get back in touch with me. It was a week later before we decided to call the police and come over and see her, and the reason being her car wasn’t here. If her car had been here the very next day, when she didn’t answer my phone I probably would have knocked on her door a day later.”

A neighbor who asked not to be identified was with deputies when they made the gruesome discovery.

“I bust the doorknob off the door and the officer went in. She kind of stepped on something and stepped back. That’s when I saw feet and toes sticking up.”

Rockdale County Sheriff’s detectives ruled the death “suspicious” and turned the body over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigator for an autopsy.

On Monday, the sheriff’s office announced the GBI had ruled the death a homicide. Detectives are interviewing a person of interest in the case.