By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Witnesses think she was alive when structure was being ripped apart.
Atlanta fire officials have not yet determined whether a woman found dead in a house being demolished Saturday was alive when backhoes began tearing the structure apart.
Witnesses told Channel 2 Action News they think the woman was alive when demolition began on the Daniel Street home. They said they heard her cry for help and later moan.
But Capt. J.L. Bundridge with the Atlanta Fire Department said investigators don’t know how the woman died or if she was already dead when workers started tearing down the house.
“During the process of demolition, they were starting to remove debris and that’s when the body was discovered,” Bundridge told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The fire department was called to the scene Saturday afternoon because it was considered a search-and-rescue operation.
Bundridge said investigators from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office were at the property but “they couldn’t determine how she died at that point. They did a hand search through the debris field to make sure there were no other victims involved. We didn’t find anybody else, fortunately, and the scene was turned back over to the contractor.”
The woman, who was found in the attic, had not been identified Sunday. Investigator Mary Beth Hauptle of the Fulton County medical examiner’s office said it would not release the woman’s identity and cause of death until attempts were made to notify her next of kin.
“She could have been alive when the demolition began, but we will not know until the medical examiner rules,” police spokeswoman Kim Jones said.
Neighbors told Channel 2 homeless people often slept in the house near Boulevard and Decatur Street, and they suspect that was why she was inside.
Neighbors said they heard a first cry for help as the backhoe was moving debris from the demolished house to a truck. Then they heard a moan as crews started filling up a second truck.
“All the reports that we are receiving is that the building was checked out by the contractors prior to the demolition starting,” Battalion Chief Todd Edwards told Channel 2.
Copyright 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution