Betty Overby Carey, 53, was found dead in her Wesley Drive home Sunday morning, and Henderson police are investigating the death as a homicide.
Police were called to the house at 366 Wesley Drive at 10:11 a.m. after someone went to check on Carey, who had not been seen or heard from in a while, according to a news release from Police Chief Glen Allen. Carey’s body was inside the house.
Wesley Drive is just inside the city limits off Parham Road in the northeastern corner of Henderson.
Carey’s blue, two-door, 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass is missing, and investigators are searching for the car. Its license plate is HND-5532.
Police and State Bureau of Investigation agents are investigating the death, which Officer J.E. Jones handled initially.
Carey’s death is the second homicide of the year in Henderson and the fourth in Vance County. In late April city police announced that the reward available for help in solving the murder of Lajuan Wilkins, 22, at his Maple Street home in March had been increased to $7,000.
One of the noncity slayings in Vance also remains unsolved: Otis Glasco’s body was found near Brodie Road on Jan. 18, more than a week after his bullet-riddled car was found on Briggs Road.
In the Carey case, the standard Crimestoppers reward of up to $1,000 is available for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people who killed her. Crimestoppers can be called at 492-1925. You also can call the Henderson police at 438-4141 or the SBI at 800-334-3000 with information. All tips remain confidential.
Slightly more than four months into 2005, Vance County has 80 percent of the homicide total for all of 2004, when five people were slain, including four inside Henderson. Arrests were made in all four Henderson cases, while the fifth case, the murder of Samir Rasheed, remains unsolved.