The two women found dead in an abandoned northwest Atlanta house were strangled months apart, according to homicide Capt. Paul Guerrucci.
So far it’s the house that links the two women, whose decomposing bodies were found Dec. 19, and their suspected killer, Ardentric Johnson, a 36-year-old with a lengthy record, he said Wednesday.
But the investigation is continuing into why Johnson allegedly killed Heather Camp and Nicole Sartell and why they frequented the abandoned house on Madrona Street.
“We had a dwelling at the nexus between the victims and the suspects,” Guerrucci said.
Guerrucci, who becomes a major on Thursday, said the crime scene was extensive and the investigation was ongoing.
Still, Johnson was charged with murder and other crimes Wednesday at the Fulton County Jail where he was already being held for violating probation. Records show he has been in and out of the Fulton County Jail since 1996 for arrests ranging from giving a false name and theft by taking to family violence and armed robbery.
Friends reported Sartell, 31, missing Aug. 18 and detectives believe she may have been dead since then. She was found in a closet that was “somewhat secured,” with clothes scattered over her body, by officers searching the house after the 33-year-old Camp was found elsewhere in the house, which had no running water or electricity
Guerrucci said someone with some ownership connection to the house had called police to report a body, Camp’s.
“Heather most likely was murdered within a couple of days of us finding her,” he said.”We believe they were killed there.”
It was while questioning people known to frequent the house, which police say was uised for illicit activities, that they came across Johnson. After interviewing him, Johnson was subsequently arrested on an outstanding warrant for violating probation for possession of cocaine, family violence and false imprisonment. He was jailed on Dec. 20. “He has been arrested and charged with those two murders,” Guerrucci said. At this point, he said, they have no reason to think anyone else was involved.
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