BALTIMORE — For two weeks, neighbors told police that had not seen 32-year-old Ashley Shaw and her 13-month-old son, August, coming or going from their apartment on McCulloh Street in West Baltimore, and on Tuesday morning, police found both of them dead inside.
“Of course, I have children so of course, she’s a year younger than me. The baby is a year younger than my youngest one so of course that hit home,” said Rochelle Rayne, one of the victims’ neighbors, “It’s a tragedy. It’s very sad, but I don’t know what I really should expect, because things happen every day.”
Tragically, it took reports from neighbors of a foul smell coming from the apartment before officers made the gruesome discovery.
We’re told the victim had a history of drug use, but it remains unclear if she suffered an overdose.
“In a situation like that, you know what I mean, if she couldn’t provide for the baby or whatever, she should have gave the baby to her family or you know, somebody,” said another neighbor, Chris Jackson, “That way the baby doesn’t have to be in that environment like that. You know what I’m saying?”
We’re told the bodies have been transported to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies, but it will take some time for toxicology reports to come back.
Whatever the cause, their deaths have left neighbors balancing a sense of grief with another of sheer hopelessness.
“Nobody wants to hear that a woman was left in a house with a child, with her own child and they’re both in here just decomposing,” said Rayne, “That’s a lot. That’s the smell of death. That means they were in there for awhile.”
