Inset left: Reginald Elliot (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office). Inset right: Alexis Harlow (Atlanta Police Department). Background: The abandoned storage unit where Harlow’s dead body was found in Atlanta (Google Maps).
A Georgia man is behind bars after a woman was found shot to death inside of an abandoned storage unit behind a strip mall in Atlanta.
Reginald Elliot, 20, stands accused of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and tampering with evidence, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
On Aug. 13, police received a 911 call that led them to a storage unit on Campbellton Road Southwest – located directly behind a local grocery store, which is currently in the process of being renovated.
Inside the unit, responding officers found the body of Alexis Jane Harlow, 29. The woman was naked with multiple gunshot wounds.
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The victim was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime. Police said she had likely been dead for at least 24 hours prior to the discovery, according to Atlanta-based ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
Law enforcement believe the murder likely occurred on or around Aug. 10, according to Fulton County Jail records.
The grim discovery was initially made by an employee cleaning up trash at one of the businesses located in the shopping center, according to Atlanta-based NBC affiliate WXIA.
“I poke my head around the truck and see him crouched down on the ground, knees to his head, just screaming,” another employee told WXIA. “He said, ‘There’s a dead body back there, there’s a dead body back there.'”
Harlow is said to have been known to those who lived and worked in the area, according to WXIA. She had been staying in the storage unit for a few months and was often seen walking through the business plaza, witnesses told the TV station.
The defendant was already in custody at the time he was connected to Harlow’s murder.
On Aug. 27, Elliot was arrested on counts of carrying weapons within school safety zones, at school functions, or on school property, possession of a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies, and a drug-related charge, jail records show.
Investigators used surveillance footage and shell casings to connect Elliot to the murder, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In a case update, the police department said the investigation “remains ongoing at this time.”
The defendant is being detained in the Fulton County Jail without bond.
