Shaquita Rena Murray, 29, died Tuesday in a Birmingham hospital after receiving a head wound in Anniston a week earlier.
Anniston investigators said they initially responded to a house in the 2500 block of Walnut Avenue on Dec. 21 after a caller reported Murray’s injuries.
By the time officers got to the home, Murray was already at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Sgt. Josh Doggrell said.
Police won’t release the caller’s identity, because they said it’s possible that person is involved with Murray’s death.
Investigators still aren’t sure whether to classify the death as a homicide.
They had hoped an autopsy at the state Department of Forensic Sciences lab in Huntsville would reveal more clues as to whether Murray died as the result of a criminal act. But Doggrell said Thursday he’d received word from the lab that the preliminary autopsy will not be enough to make that determination.
Instead, the lab plans to release an official notice sometime today that classifies Murray’s cause of death as “pending.”
That means medical examiners will have to conduct more extensive lab tests to decide whether Murray’s death was a homicide, investigators said.
Doggrell said that’s something that could take the state lab months to figure out.
If Murray’s death is ruled a homicide, it will be Calhoun County’s 19th criminal death in 2011.
Contact Star Staff Writer Cameron Steele at 256-235-3562.
