Richmond County coroner rules suspicious death as homicide

UPDATE | Latest slaying victim identified in Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A local crime wave has now claimed four lives in two days, with Coroner Mark Bowen ruling a suspicious death as a homicide.

At 11:54 a.m. Tuesday, Richmond County deputies responded to an address in the 1500 block of Conklin Lane to investigate a report of a dead person.

Upon arrival, deputies found a dead female in front of a vacant residence. She was pronounced dead at 12:24 p.m.

Deputies are in the early stages of the investigation and aren’t releasing further information right now.

Her name has not been released in part because she has not been positively identified, according to Bowen.

From the start, the death was considered suspicious, but Bowen ruled later in the day that it was a homicide, bringing Augusta’s total to four since Sunday, on top of one that was reported Thursday.

In addition to the Conklin Lane homicide:

Shortly before 11 p.m. Monday, Jenefer Holt Herron, 52, of Augusta, was fatally shot outside a Circle K at 1739 Walton Way, reportedly after an argument in the parking lot. Yelena Buckner, 33, of Augusta, was arrested.
At 7:23 a.m. Monday, deputies were called to the 1900 block of Old Savannah Road, where a ing motorist found Johnnie Coleman, 72, of Augusta, who’d been shot dead.
JaJuan Russell, 21, of the 700 block of East Chapman Street, was fatally shot early Sunday in the 3700 block of Oslo Road. Russell was taken to Augusta University Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 1:14 a.m. An autopsy was scheduled with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Brandon Peebles, 24, of Girard, was shot around 10:45 p.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of Prague Court, the same neighborhood as Sunday’s shooting. He was pronounced dead at 11:23 p.m. Bowen said the victim’s body was sent to the GBI.