![\"Alexa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/246b1b0a-7274-4d5f-bc82-4bd5696aedfa_1763530412.file.png\")
<\/a>NORTH NAPLES, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nMonths after a North Naples woman was found dead inside her home, her friends say they’re still grieving and growing increasingly frustrated as they wait for answers.<\/p>\n
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the suspicious death of 43-year-old Deena McNelis<\/a>, who was found during a welfare check at her home on Mangrove Avenue in the Windward Isles community in May.<\/p>\n Investigators have not released McNelis’ cause of death, identified a suspect or announced any arrests.<\/p>\n For Brittany Blasucci, one of McNelis’ closest friends, the uncertainty has made an already painful loss even harder.<\/p>\n “You know Deena was one of my best friends,” Blasucci said through tears. “Three months later and I still can’t do it.”<\/p>\n Blasucci described McNelis as someone who brought energy and laughter wherever she went.<\/p>\n “Oh, she was a character, that’s for sure. Anybody who knew Deena knew she was a character,” Blasucci said. “She was full of life.”<\/p>\n McNelis leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter, along with friends who say they are determined not to let her story<\/a> be forgotten. <\/p>\n Blasucci says she has repeatedly contacted the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, turning over information she believed could help detectives, including text messages, videos and other evidence.<\/p>\n She says she has also emailed, called and driven to the sheriff’s office in hopes of receiving an update.<\/p>\n “They wanted answers from me, but they couldn’t give me anything at all,” Blasucci said.<\/p>\n She says what has been most difficult is not necessarily the lack of public information, but what she describes as a lack of communication.<\/p>\n “Everybody deserves an answer,” Blasucci said. “And we’re not getting anything.” <\/p>\n Gulf Coast News first reported on McNelis’ death<\/a> after deputies responded to a welfare check at her home. At the time, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office confirmed major crimes detectives were investigating the case as a suspicious death.<\/p>\n This week, the sheriff’s office again told Gulf Coast News the investigation remains active and said no additional information can be released at this time.<\/p>\n Investigators have not released McNelis’ cause of death or announced any arrests. <\/p>\n Another friend, Renay Montague, hopes sharing McNelis’ story again could encourage someone with information to speak up.<\/p>\n “Maybe we can spark some more interest in this,” Montague said. “Maybe there’s somebody out there that knows something and can now call and report it.” <\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends seek answers months after North Naples woman found dead in home NORTH NAPLES, Fla. \u2014 Months after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18236,145831,5051,145835,32334,145829,33204,45601,5926,1845,124906,145825,104,28,30,29,36813,13958,145833,4329,320,4211,7441,213,145832,145827,7938,145834,141757,145826,145836,660,145830,60869,85663,145828],"class_list":["post-357268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-10-year-old-daughter","tag-43-year-old","tag-active-investigation","tag-answer-month","tag-answers","tag-brittany-blasucci","tag-cause","tag-cause-of-death","tag-collier-county","tag-collier-county-sheriff","tag-collier-county-sheriffs-office","tag-deena-mcnelis","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-woman","tag-friend","tag-friends-grieving","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-home","tag-information","tag-investigator","tag-late-news","tag-major-crimes-detectives","tag-mangrove-avenue","tag-may","tag-mcnelis","tag-no-arrests","tag-north-naples","tag-north-naples-woman","tag-office","tag-renay-montague","tag-suspicious-death","tag-welfare-check","tag-windward-isles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357268","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=357268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}