Police close the case of two friends murdered in Georgia despite family’s pleas for answers

Authorities in Georgia have closed an investigation into a mysterious pair of fatal shootings that left three people dead — two close friends who were gunned down in front of their home-office and a neighbor whose body was found days later, police said Thursday.

Columbus Police Detective Anthony Locey confirmed the status of the case in an email. Later, in a news release, the department said that neighbor Solomon Adams was responsible for the March 7 killing of Ronisha “Nikki” Anderson, 51, and Juantonja Richmond, 52.

Adams, 51, lived next door to Anderson and was found dead in his home on March 9.

The department said it conducted an extensive investigation into the killings that relied partly on results from the state crime lab. But victims' relatives were infuriated by the development, which they said they had not been alerted to.

“It’s pitiful that we have two women who were brutally murdered in broad daylight and from the start of this investigation it’s been riddled with issues and inconsistencies and a lack of attention,” said Brittany Anderson, Nikki Anderson’s niece.

“They didn’t have enough decency to let the families know the case was closed,” she said. “That’s not only distressing. That’s disrespectful.”

Andrionna Williams, a spokeswoman for Richmond’s family, said her relatives had also not been notified.

“It’s extremely difficult on them,” she said.

Neither Locey nor a police department spokeswoman responded to additional requests for comment. In a statement last year, the spokeswoman said the department’s violent crimes unit was “working diligently to bring the case to a resolve and, more importantly, bring the victims’ families closure.”

Besides a brief statement on Facebook, the police department had said little else about the case publicly.

Nikki Anderson, a mother of three, was shot once in the head outside the home-office where she handled billing for her ex-husband’s counseling practice, according to her death certificate. Richmond, a former Army sergeant who worked with Anderson, was shot in the neck and the chest, according to her autopsy.

Adams, a convicted sex offender who served more than a decade in a Florida prison, suffered a single gunshot wound to the head that may have been self-inflicted, according to a coroner’s report. Authorities haven’t provided additional details about Adams’ death, and it isn’t clear whether it was ruled a suicide.

A deputy coroner found notes scattered around his home suggesting he had been targeted by “an individual and or gang members.”

Anderson's sister told NBC News in December that the police department had planned on closing the case and making an announcement about it after Jan. 1. Brittany Anderson said was no follow-up with her family and she learned the case had been closed after emailing Locey on Jan. 22.

Locey had told NBC News he planned to put out a release on the case after the new year. He didn’t respond to a request for the release Wednesday. He also hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment on details that one of Nikki Anderson's sisters, Therasa Anderson, said he provided about the shootings on a phone call in December.

According to Therasa Anderson, Locey said Adams appears to have “snapped” and killed the two women.

Locey cited a witness who said she heard the gunfire and saw Adams in the home’s front yard in an apparent panic, Therasa Anderson said. Locey also pointed to Adams’ estranged wife, who told police that Adams confessed to doing “something bad” after the shooting.

Nikki Anderson's relatives have said the motive doesn’t make sense — she had a good neighborly relationship with Adams — and investigators previously told the family there were no witnesses to the shooting, Brittany Anderson said. She said investigators told her a delivery driver who found their bodies dialed 911.

In an interview last year, Adams’ estranged wife, Arimentha Adams, didn’t indicate that Solomon Adams said he’d done something bad. Shortly after the two women were killed, he asked her to summon authorities to his home the next day, Arimentha said, adding that she didn’t ask why because they were separated.

Arimentha said someone from the Columbus Police Department later told her that Solomon had nothing to do with the shootings.

NBC News hasn’t been able to reach Arimentha for clarification.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com