A 34-year-old man is facing a murder charge in connection with the death of a woman whose body was discovered in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood last week, police said.
The body of Daneshia Heller, 30, was found shortly before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Northwest 15th Avenue, and Fort Lauderdale Police detectives determined her death was “suspicious” and likely a homicide, spokesperson Casey Liening previously said in a statement.
Altavious Powell was publicly identified as the suspect by the police department on Sunday evening.
He was arrested by the department’s Gun Intelligence Unit on Thursday on charges of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, carrying a concealed firearm, resisting an officer without violence and false ID given to a law enforcement officer — charges unrelated to Heller’s death, Liening said.
Jail records show Powell is also now facing a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm.
Shortly before 6:30 a.m. the morning after Heller’s body was found, someone called Fort Lauderdale police, anonymously reporting “that someone had just confessed to a homicide,” according to a probable cause affidavit, and the man who confessed was “armed and dangerous and has a gun.”
Officers reviewed surveillance video from the a business in the 1300 block of Northwest Sixth Street where the man had allegedly confessed. Detectives identified the man seen on surveillance video as Powell, a four-time convicted felon, the affidavit said.
Later that morning, Fort Lauderdale detectives saw Powell getting into a car parked in front of the Dixie Court Apartments, which is less than a mile from the area where Heller’s body was found, according to the affidavit.
After briefly trying to run away from officers, Powell was arrested, the affidavit said. Officers found a gun Powell discarded into bushes while running away.
Court records pertaining to the murder charge were not available Monday. Powell is held in the Broward Main Jail.