Two people were found dead in a Miami Gardens home Tuesday in what police are calling a double homicide.
At about 9:35 a.m. police got a call to do a welfare check at 3451 NW 207th St. from a neighbor who had not seen the woman in the house for quite some time, Miami Gardens Police said.
Police called a relative, who granted access to the authorities, who then found a woman and a man dead inside, police said.
Relatives identified the victims as Annette Anderson, 70, and Anderson's 20-year-old grandson, Tyrone Walker Jr.
Tyrone Walker Sr. and his wife Carolyn flew into Miami after getting the sad news Tuesday morning.
"I spoke to him last on Friday, and I just asked the officer, 'Can I see my son?'" he said.
Their son had just moved from Jacksonville to Miami a few months ago to study computer science at ITT Tech, and was too busy for trouble, Walker Sr. said.
"When he came back to us, he never told us about anybody that was a friend of his, that he met in class or anything like that," he said.
Anderson used to be a minister at Jesus People Ministries in Miami Gardens, said Walker's uncle, Pastor Virgil Walker.
More recently Anderson held Bible studies in her home on Tuesdays around noon, said Walker, who is a pastor at Kingdom Life in North Miami.
“She was one of those family members that ministered the word," said Anderson's niece, Martha Wells. "She always had something encouraging to say to you and she took her God-given gift and she went all over the world with that, ministering the word of God."
Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert said Anderson "was truly an extraordinary human being."
"She wasn’t a person who required a whole bunch of attention, but she was a person who was always there, not just for her friends and family, but for strangers," he said.
It appeared as if the bodies had been there for a few days, police said.
“I am sure whoever it is out there who did this evil crime, she prayed for them," Wells said.
Carolyn Walker said her mother had lived in the house for about 45 years, and it was where her son was born.
His three sisters are taking their deaths hard.
"My youngest daughter said, 'Mom, what if they kill us?' You know? So, now it's put fear in my daughters, and this is a place they loved to come to," Carolyn Walker said. "If we said we were coming to Miami, they would just light up."
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