Augustine Smith was a 93-year-old who clung to a few simple pleasures.
She went to church every Sunday. She sat on her front porch in the summertime, waving at neighbors in the Chatham neighborhood and talking about the Bible. And during the colder months, she played cards on occasion with two friends, Ellen Roundtree and Earl Collins.
That’s apparently what the trio was doing Monday when, for reasons that remain unknown, they were stabbed repeatedly and left to die.
Their bodies, lying in pools of dried blood, were discovered about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday by Smith’s nephew, Timothy Hall, 33, when he arrived at the blond-brick bungalow after being away for a few days, police said.
Smith’s body was found in the hallway leading to the kitchen, while Roundtree, 70, and Collins, 72, were found on the dining-room floor, said Pullman District Cmdr. Earl Nevels.
Police were searching for a suspect, a motive and a murder weapon, Nevels said.
It was not known if anything had been taken from the house, located in the 600 block of East 88th Street, but the crime scene did not resemble most burglaries, police said.
Only the dining room was in disarray, littered with overturned, broken chairs, playing cards, stray coins and a watch, while the rest of the house appeared to be undisturbed, police said.
“Usually if it’s a house break-in, they ransack the house,” said in, they ransack the house,” said Gresham District Cmdr. William Batts Jr. “That wasn’t the case here.”
At least two of the victims had cuts on their hands and wrists, indicating they put up a struggle before they died, said Wentworth Sgt. Ronald Palmer.
There were no signs that the house had been broken into, Nevels said. The front door was locked from the inside, and while the door to an enclosed back porch was open, a security gate on the back door to the house was padlocked, police said.
Police believe the murder occurred sometime after 5 p.m. Monday.
Collins had received a phone call at Smith’s home about that time and told the caller that he was leaving soon, Nevels said.
But Collins never left. His blue Cadillac and Roundtree’s brown Pontiac remained parked in front of Smith’s house Wednesday.
Police interviewed Smith’s nephew, Hall, at Pullman District headquarters, but Nevels said Wednesday evening that he wasn’t being questioned as a suspect.
The triple killing stunned the neighborhood, which neighbors described as quiet and safe. Smith, whose husband, Shelby, died about five years ago, had lived in the neighborhood longer than anyone there could remember.
Since her husband’s death, she had lived alone, though a friend or relative occasionally stayed over for brief periods, neighbors said.
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“Everybody around here can say they know her,” said neighbor Mary Miller. “She’s a very nice lady, a nice neighbor, a churchgoing lady.”
Kathleen Dillon, who lives next door to Smith, said her elderly neighbor was “like a grandmother” to her children.
“She was just a happy person who liked to talk about the word (of God),” Dillon said. “I can’t believe somebody would kill her. For what? . . . I don’t know if that lady has an enemy.
“This is unreal, unbelievable,” she said, as she wiped away tears. “Not this neighborhood, you hear about (triple murders) someplace else, but not here.”
Earl Collins lived at Trinity Oaks, 6225 S. Drexel Ave., a secured housing unit for senior citizens.
Residents there described him as a quiet but friendly man who kept to himself and never had a cross word for anybody.
“He was a regular human being,” said Jesse Larry, a resident. “You hardly knew he was here. He would get into his Cadillac and he was gone.”
Collins had lived at the housing unit since it opened more than a year ago, Larry said.
“It’s one of those bad things that happen to good people,” Larry said.