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.
On May 21, during the early morning hours, Kevin Andrew Akins, 37, went to his estranged wife’s apartment on Murray Avenue in Dalton — a small city some 30 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee. There, he shot and killed Rebeca Nicole Akins, 35, according to a press release issued by the Dalton Police Department.
Surveillance footage showed the assailant leaving around 6 a.m.
But the woman’s body would not be found until over two days later, when co-workers noticed she had not called in or shown up for work and asked police to perform a welfare check.
“After being unable to get anyone to come to the door, officers were let into the residence by apartment staff and discovered the woman’s body with an apparent gunshot wound to the head,” police wrote in the press release. “Detectives were immediately notified and an investigation started.”
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.
“Due to being with that man for 20 years, all of her financials were tied up in his,” Nicole Akins’ sister wrote. “She was on his life insurance policy, and given the nature of their deaths we are unsure what that means for it being able to pay for her funeral. We want to give her a service that she deserved, celebrating her kindness, her happiness, and her unwavering love.”
Law enforcement have not offered a motive as of this writing.
