Left Rebeca Nicole Akins (GoFundMe). Right: Cindel Mae Rhoden (GoFundMe).
Three adults and one unborn child are dead in Georgia after a man killed his wife, his pregnant girlfriend, and himself last week.
During the early morning hours of May 21, Kevin Andrew Akins, 37, visited his estranged wife’s apartment on Murray Avenue in Dalton, a small city located about 30 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tragically, he shot and killed Rebeca Nicole Akins, 35, as reported by the Dalton Police Department.
Surveillance footage showed the assailant leaving around 6 a.m.
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Rebeca’s body remained undiscovered for more than two days until concerned co-workers realized she had neither called in nor appeared for work. They then requested a welfare check by the police.
Upon entering the residence, officers were granted access by apartment staff after unsuccessful attempts to contact anyone inside. It was there that they found the woman’s body, which displayed signs of a gunshot wound to the head. The police promptly informed detectives and launched an investigation into the tragic incident.
In a GoFundMe, the first victim’s younger sister said she “was tragically taken away from us by the man she had loved for over half of her life.”
Investigators determined that Kevin Akins then traveled to another apartment on Shadow Lane, located roughly 4 miles across town.
The second apartment was home to Cindel Mae Rhoden, 33, the killer’s girlfriend. The mother of two girls was five months pregnant with a baby boy, according to a GoFundMe.
Inside, Kevin Akins shot and killed Rhoden and then turned the gun on himself, according to law enforcement.
The discovery was made even grimmer by a somewhat delayed order of official permissions — while police were waiting on a search warrant to enter Rhoden’s apartment, a man walked in using a key on May 24.
As it turned out, that man was Rhoden’s own father. He quickly exited the unit and called 911 to report finding his daughter and another man shot to death.
“Cindel was more than just a victim of this tragedy she was kind, full of life, and a devoted mom doing her best for her girls,” the second fundraiser reads. “Her daughters are now in the care of family, but they need help. We are raising funds to provide for their basic needs, funeral expenses, and a more stable future as they navigate this unthinkable loss.”
The first victim’s family took stock of common life events to relay a more banal but dire aspect of their current situation.
Law enforcement have not offered a motive as of this writing.
