Sandwiched between a sign store and a property management business in the 2400 block of St. Paul Street, neighbors say an apartment building draws more than its share of traffic.
"People come and go. They holler out and they knock on the doors early in the morning," said James Forney.
But on Tuesday, it drew a different kind of traffic.
"There was an emergency truck out there and a fire truck and about four or five police cars,” said Forney. Police discovered the bodies of an unidentified male and female with obvious signs of trauma.
"All I know is they go out of town, and I thought they were out of town," said one of their friends, Tyrone Archy, who became concerned about the couple after detecting a strong odor inside the building. "We had a sewage problem in the basement apartment and they were digging up next door, so I thought that had something to do with it, and I just casually said to my brother, 'That smell, man and we haven't seen them. What if that's them?'"
Now, neighbors are grieving for the couple who opened up to everyone on the block.
"They were friends. They would stop by and say hello in here," said Peter Pecovic who owns a business next door.
"They were real good people,” added one of their neighbors, Reno Green. “They would give you the shirt off their back."
And at this point, they can only speculate over whether their friendly neighbors' open door policy backfired when they opened it to the wrong person with deadly intent.
"I don't know,” said Archy. “They live a certain lifestyle and things happen, you know?"
"It's just bad,” said Green. “Killing people is not good and those people didn't deserve to die."
Neighbors say they hadn't seen the couple in a week or more, and they add there was no sign of forced entry outside the couple's apartment leading them to believe they may have known their killer.
