Police: Woman found shot to death in car outside of DeLand Walgreens
DELAND — An Ohio woman was found shot to death in a car outside of a Walgreens here on Tuesday, an apparent victim of a homicide that occurred days prior, police said.
On Wednesday, DeLand police said they were looking for the suspected shooter, Robert Fleming, 36, the boyfriend of the victim, Latasha Mitchell Warren, 35.
In a press conference Wednesday, DeLand Police Deputy Chief Adam Kisthardt said investigators were still trying to piece together how Warren ended up in the car outside the store at East New York and Amelia avenues. Her body was found Tuesday at 1:10 p.m.
The car had been parked outside of the Walgreens since at least Sunday, police said.
"We actually currently do not have an address for her and she is not known to our police department here," Kisthardt said of the victim. "We believe she was from out of town and that she traveled some distance to be here."
Fleming and Warren are originally from Ohio and had been in Central Florida for a few months, said city of DeLand spokesman Chris Graham.
In an incident report, DeLand police stated that the owner of the car, a woman from Orlando, started looking for the vehicle after it was not returned to her. She tracked it down to the Walgreens and called police Tuesday, according to the report.
Police arrived at the scene and found Warren in the passenger's seat, the report states.
An officer knocked on the window but Warren did not respond. The officer moved closer and saw dried blood and spent bullet casings on the driver's seat, the report details.
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Kisthard said bullet holes were visible in the car.
"There was evidence that a gun had been fired in proximity or in the vehicle," Kisthardt said, declining to say if Warren was shot once or multiple times.
Shoppers at the Walgreens on Wednesday said Warren's death was troubling.
"It is really weird that she had been in the car since Sunday and no one saw her," said Mercedes De La Torre.
De La Torre, of DeLand, said she was at the drugstore on Sunday.
"I was here Sunday afternoon and everything seemed normal," she said.
Nearby, Gladys Rivera, sat in her vehicle talking to her daughter on her cell phone about Warren's murder.
Rivera regularly shops at the Walgreens and said it was unsettling that someone was killed in the parking lot.
"It is scary and sad at the same time that no one knew that she was there for a couple of days," Rivera said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Police: Woman found shot to death in car outside DeLand Walgreens
