Henry County police have opened two death investigations within three weeks along the same Stockbridge road, and they are looking into the possibility that they are connected.
The remains of two women were found Tuesday morning in a wooded area off Hudson Bridge Road, a busy shopping district that also houses numerous apartment buildings. While those victims have not been identified, police are investigating whether their deaths are connected to that of Mirsha Victor, a 23-year-old woman killed in Henry County after she was reported missing out of DeKalb County.
Family Photo
Family Photo
According to a police report released Wednesday, a DeKalb detective was looking for Victor on July 9 after her cellphone was pinged at an apartment on Hudson Bridge Terrace. The detective asked a Henry County police officer for help contacting the resident of the apartment, 41-year-old Dennis Lane.
Lane and two others are facing murder charges in Victor’s death.
Lane had called Victor’s mother and asked to speak with her at his apartment, according to the report. The woman traveled with the two officers to the apartment complex, where they were met by Lane.
“I heard Mr. Lane explain he was not a bad guy and everyone was blaming him for Miss Victor being missing,” the Henry officer said in the report. The man went quiet once he learned of the officers’ presence, the report said.
Lane was detained in the back of a patrol car when a mattress with what appeared to be blood stains was spotted on top of a dumpster across from his apartment, according to the report. A subsequent search of Lane’s apartment found “blood on the floor, in the bathroom, and a mattress missing,” the Henry officer said.
Police have confirmed Victor’s death but have not said if her body was located. They believe she was killed July 8, the day she was reported missing from the Panthersville area. Three days later, investigators asked for the public’s help finding the woman’s car, a black Ford Mustang convertible. A lookout for the vehicle was later canceled.
Lane, Cleounsee Fisher and Ronisha Preckwinkle were later arrested. On Wednesday afternoon, neighbors told Channel 2 Action News that Lane and Fisher were brothers who had moved to the area from Chicago. They had lived together at the apartment complex for about a year.
Lane also faces charges of necrophilia, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence, jail records show. He is a registered sex offender who was convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault in Illinois nearly two decades ago, according to the GBI’s online registry.
No further information about Fisher’s and Preckwinkle’s involvement in Victor’s death was released, but the two are also charged with murder, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence, authorities said.
Channel 2 Action News
Channel 2 Action News
On Tuesday morning, two bodies were found near the intersection of Hudson Bridge Road and Oakwood Manor Drive, about a half-mile from Lane’s apartment. The area is home to the Oakwood Apartments and surrounded by several fast-food restaurants and a strip mall anchored by a Kroger.
Police did not say in what state the remains were found. The GBI is assisting and was expected to make a positive identification of the victims. At this point in the investigation, there are more questions than answers, according to a Henry police spokesman.
“We are investigating leads that we have of additional potential victims that may be out there,” Capt. Randy Lee told Channel 2. “We’re not ruling anything out. We’re taking this investigation where it leads us.”
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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