CBS Atlanta 46Strangled Jonesboro woman feared for her life

Strangled Jonesboro woman feared for her life

CBS Atlanta News is breaking new details in the death of a Jonesboro mother of two. Her suspected killer was in court this morning - charged with aggravated assault and murder. Now a family friend tells us in the weeks leading up to Rochelle Thomas' murder she was afraid for her life.

"This was a very dangerous act and a very deliberate act. So that threw up a red flag for her," Antwan Wright said.

Wright, who was friends with Thomas, says she was scared and called him three weeks ago after someone slashed the tires of her car. He told police someone was threatening Thomas' life in the weeks leading up to her death.

"That was why she said she was going to put up some surveillance camera around her home," Wright said.

Thomas' body was discovered dumped behind a Jonesboro apartment complex Wednesday night. Her accused killer, Bohemia Johnson, was booked into the Clayton County Jail, charged with her death this morning.

"She was a very doting mother, very caring, and just a very lovely young lady, and it is just a terrible shame. It is a terrible tragedy that has taken place," Wright said.

Friends say Thomas was turning around her life. The mother of two had a less than perfect past with a history of drugs, arrests and prostitution.

"I heard rumors about, something to the effect that she was prostituting, and all that stuff that is definitely not the case," Wright said.

Wright called his friend an aspiring businesswoman, who was running her massage business out of her home. But police say she was soliciting sex for money, a dangerous business that may have cost her her life.

"She did have people coming in and out because she had a studio in her home for her massage therapy," Wright said.

One of those people may have been Johnson. Police say he was one of her clients.

But even though her suspected killer is behind bars, police are searching for others.

"At some point another individual returned to that apartment, who was not a primary participant in the crime, but returned there and attempted to sanitize and destroy evidence," police chief Franklin Allen said.

Investigators were interviewing people throughout the night here at the police department. They expect to make an arrest of those accomplices who tried to hide evidence Thomas was strangled, and her body dumped.

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