Kebba Eileen-Lucia Woody, 48, was found dead on January 10, 2026, after firefighters were dispatched to a house fire along Oakdale Road in northwest Charlotte, near McClure Drive. The call came in during the evening, and crews arrived to a burning residence that appeared, at first, like a routine fire response—until the scene began to tell a darker story.
Charlotte firefighters reached the area around 8:30 p.m., working the blaze with a large response that included roughly 30
personnel. The fire was brought under control in about 17 minutes. But inside, a single victim was discovered, and Medic pronounced Woody dead at the scene. What initially looked like death by fire quickly shifted into a homicide investigation when authorities determined she had suffered gunshot wounds.
Investigators focused on a tight window of time, placing the shooting sometime between 8:00 p.m. and 8:52 p.m. The location was described as an apartment or duplex on Oakdale Road, and police documented the recovery of a silver Rossi. 38 revolver at the scene. While the firearm’s presence suggested the violence may have unfolded at close range and under chaotic circumstances, officials did not publicly describe who handled the weapon, whether it belonged to Woody, or how it fit into the events that ended her life.
As detectives took over, the fire itself remained a question mark. Authorities said the cause of the fire was not known, leaving open the possibility that the flames were connected to the shooting—or that the two tragedies converged in a way investigators were still working to untangle. Firefighters were not reported injured during the response, but the night left behind a burned home, a deadly crime scene, and a family suddenly without answers.
In the days immediately following Woody’s death, investigators had not announced any arrests, and no suspect or suspects were publicly identified. The case remained under active investigation, with police treating the fire scene as part of a broader homicide inquiry while they worked to reconstruct the final moments inside the Oakdale Road residence.
