FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Nearly a week after a woman was found dead in Fort Lauderdale, police are trying to ease residents\u2019 concerns over potential threats to the community as the family is speaking out on the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Investigators held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to dispel online rumors that the case involved a serial killer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk about an incident like this, I mean, serial killer is a very strong statement to make, you\u2019re talking about putting the lives of not only the residents of the city of Fort Lauderdale, I have family members from other states reaching out, concerned about the safety of women and children, and people are afraid to walk and go outside their homes,\u201d said Fort Lauderdale Police Homicide Sgt. Don Geiger.<\/p>\n
Detectives said that false information started spreading after the arrest of Altavious Powell<\/a>, who was charged with first-degree murder on Thursday for the killing of 30-year-old Daneshia Heller<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials said the claims were unfounded and advised verifying information before posting it online, emphasizing the dangers of doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cBut also from a standpoint, you gotta understand that a lot of things that have reached social media are saying that we have a serial killer, and putting out people\u2019s vehicles and descriptions of a person\u2019s vehicle that\u2019s not involved in this, and that\u2019s a safety issue for that person, that person\u2019s family,\u201d said Geiger.<\/p>\n Detectives made clear that Powell is currently only connected to the murder of Heller.<\/p>\n Officers found Heller\u2019s body near a dumpster covered with cardboard boxes in the\u00a0200 block of Northwest 15th Avenue last Wednesday.<\/p>\n Detectives believe that Powell killed her in a vacant apartment and then left her near the dumpster, but are still determining the motive behind the crime.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know the motive right now, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll find the motive, but as of right now, we\u2019re still going through cell phone data, text messages, and things like that to verify what the motive was,\u201d said Geiger.<\/p>\n Now, days later, the victim\u2019s parents say they are still mourning the loss of their daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did he do that to her?\u201d said Temekia Connor, the victim\u2019s mother. \u201cWe never seen him, we don\u2019t know who he is, where he from.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPreyed on my daughter, \u2019cause she was by herself, and he abused her, and you harmed her in the worst way, and took her life,\u201d said David Heller, the victim\u2019s father. \u201cAnd I pray to God for your soul, that you rot in hell, that you rot in hell, and I never will forgive you, ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Powell was initially arrested on an unrelated case, but through investigative means was found to be a suspect in Heller\u2019s murder, according to officials.<\/p>\n Powell is currently facing various charges, including premeditated murder.<\/p>\n Despite the arrest, police detectives said that they are still investigating the case.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – Nearly a week after a woman was found dead in Fort Lauderdale, police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-168007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}