Philadelphia police are investigating after a woman was found decapitated inside a home in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood, according to reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer and WPVI.
Police said they responded around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a stabbing at a house on the 300 block of Magee Avenue.
The body of a 41-year-old woman, whose name has not been released yet, was found in the home with her head severed, police said.
Police told the Inquirer they had been to the house before, responding to prior incidents.
WPVI reported that a male suspect tried to flee in his car but was apprehended by police.
The suspect, Ahmad Shareef, 34, will be charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and possessing an instrument of crime, Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the city’s District Attorney’s Office, told the Inquirer.
An unidentified neighbor told the Inquirer that the people living in the home were Syrian immigrants who moved in about seven years ago, and that there had been a history of domestic disturbances at the house.
“Cops are always being called on them, a lot of domestic abuse,” neighbor John Martinez said to WPVI.
Citing court records, the Inquirer said that Shareef agreed to plead guilty in 2015 for a disorderly conduct arrest that occurred the year prior. In 2016, he was charged with driving under the influence. That case was not resolved and there remains an active bench warrant for Shareef.
Shareef is currently being held without bail, the Inquirer said.
“She was the nicest person,” neighbor Tanya Richardson said to WPVI about the victim.
