ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - The neighbor who found Tiffany Carroll dead inside her home says he heard a scream the night before he discovered her body.
The man, who lives in the duplex next to Carroll's on Avalon Avenue, NW, says he looked outside when he heard the disturbance Sunday evening. He says Carroll's car was not in the driveway, so he figured she'd left.
The neighbor says two of Carroll's co-workers came over to the duplex on Monday, when Carroll did not show up for work. The three of them got no answer when they knocked. The man says he walked around back and entered the home through an unlocked patio door. He says as he approached the front room of Carroll's home, he saw her lying in a pool of blood by the front door, covered with a blanket. The man says the co-workers wanted to go inside and do CPR, but it was too late.
The neighbor tells us Steven Hartman, who's charged in connection to Carroll's death, had lived with her for a couple of years, but that Hartman's behavior had become erratic in recent months.
Police arrested Hartman on 16th Street, SE. He is charged with second-degree murder. Officers also served him with three outstanding warrants from 2015 in Roanoke County, for credit card theft, conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and failure to appear in court.
A police spokesman says it does not appear Carroll was killed with a gun. An autopsy will determine her exact cause of death.
The neighbor tells us Carroll was a massage therapist, who taught at Miller Motte Technical College and also worked at Vistar. He says she has a son in college in North Carolina.