
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 4, 1990                   TAG: 9003042183
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BODY OF WOMAN FOUND

Roanoke police are investigating the death of a 41-year-old woman, whose body was found lying face down in an alley off Orange Avenue Saturday morning.

Marie A. Howard of Ferncliff Apartments was last seen about 1 a.m. on Melrose Avenue after a male companion dropped her off en route to lodge meeting, said Roanoke Police Maj. J.L. Viar.

Her body was found at 9:54 a.m.

Witnesses told police that Howard had been seen talking to several other men later in the morning.

Viar said the woman's body had no gunshot or knife wounds, but she had an abrasion on her back and a cut on her lip.

Her clothes were in disarray.

"She looked like she had been in a scuffle," Viar said.

Howard's body will be examined by the medical examiner's office on Monday.

None of the neighbors reported hearing a disturbance near the alley, located in the 1400 block of Orange Avenue.

by CNB