While in jail, man charged after woman found dead in Atlanta storage area
After a woman’s decomposing body was found in Atlanta last month, new details reveal investigators used extensive surveillance footage and shell casings to lead them to a man already in jail.
Reginald Elliot, 20, was charged Thursday with murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and tampering with evidence, police announced.
He is accused in the death of Alexis Jane Harlow, who was found Aug. 13 in a storage space at a southwest Atlanta shopping complex, officials said. An incident report revealed the victim was naked and “in a partial state of decomposition” when she was found around 11:30 a.m. in the 2000 block of Campbellton Road, between Delowe and Myrtle drives.
Through surveillance footage and other evidence collected, police said they determined Harlow was killed Aug. 10. She had been shot in the head, authorities said.
In the storage area, police said they observed the victim’s shoes placed nearby, shell casings, beer bottles and cans, and lottery tickets.
Police began investigating after a man discovered the woman and flagged down a worker. The man, who police identified as homeless and well-known to business owners in the area, told officers he was friends with Harlow, according to an arrest warrant.
Surveillance footage revealed that Harlow and the homeless man were hanging out near the storage area around 8 p.m. About an hour later, she was seen walking alone near a man riding a red moped. Police eventually identified the man on the moped as Elliot.
Harlow was then seen pointing toward the storage area and entering it with Elliot, the warrant details.
Not long after, officials said Elliot was seen carrying clothes to the front of the shopping complex, returning to the storage area and then leaving the scene.
When the victim was found, the homeless man told police at the scene that Harlow had come to the Atlanta area on a bus, that “she was tired and she wanted to get out of the game,” according to the warrant. The man said the victim was a “sex worker” and that they did drugs together, the warrant adds.
By Aug. 28, police said they had been able to track down Elliot’s mother, and she identified him from surveillance footage.
It was that day police also learned Elliot had been booked into the Fulton County Jail. He was arrested on separate charges of carrying a weapon within school safety zones, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and possession of marijuana. The charges were brought by the Morehouse College Police Department.
Atlanta police were able to obtain the weapon recovered by Morehouse police to see if it matched the shell casings located in the storage space near Harlow. On Thursday, police determined that “recovered cartridge casings are likely to have been fired from the same firearm.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to Morehouse College for more information.
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