TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The Tallahassee Police Department is investigating after a body was found inside a home on Wesley Drive Friday afternoon.
Investigators responded to the home for a suspicious death around 1:50 p.m., according to the Tallahassee Online Police Statistics website, or TOPS. A spokesperson with TPD said the body was so badly decomposed that it would have to be sent to the crime lab for identification through DNA analysis.
The home once belonged to Avis Anderson who was last seen in the Fall of 2020. However, it had recently sold at auction and was in the process of being cleaned out, a family said. A partially-filled junk debris removal truck was surrounded by crime scene tape as investigators worked the scene.
Avis is a FAMU grad who had retired from the Florida Department of Revenue. A family member said she had been struggling before she disappeared.
“Everyone has their own demons and their own challenges,” said cousin Zarsa Shakespeare in 2020. “That does not make her any less of someone we love.”
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When WCTV visited the home in 2020 after police publicly reported Anderson missing, a reporter found the front door ajar, public notices plastered on the window, and unopened packages collecting on the front stoop. Neighbors and family members of Anderson said cadaver dogs had been brought it at some point after her disappearance to search the home.
It has not been confirmed if the remains belong to Anderson. Police have not said whether foul play is suspected, nor how the body was found. Forensics were working inside the garage for hours on Friday afternoon and left the scene around 7 p.m.
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