Left Rebeca Nicole Akins (GoFundMe). Right: Cindel Mae Rhoden (GoFundMe).
Three adults and one unborn child are dead in Georgia after a man killed his wife, his pregnant girlfriend, and himself last week.
In the early morning of May 21, Kevin Andrew Akins, 37, arrived at his estranged wife’s residence on Murray Avenue in Dalton, a small town about 30 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee. There, he fatally shot Rebeca Nicole Akins, 35, as stated in a press release from the Dalton Police Department.
Surveillance footage showed the assailant leaving around 6 a.m.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Rebeca’s body was not discovered until more than two days later when her colleagues became concerned after she neither called in nor reported to work, prompting them to request a welfare check from the police.
“When nobody answered the door, officers gained access to the apartment with assistance from the apartment staff and found the woman’s body, which appeared to have a gunshot wound to the head,” the police stated in the press release. “Detectives were immediately informed and commenced an investigation.”
In a GoFundMe, the first victim’s younger sister said she “was tragically taken away from us by the man she had loved for over half of her life.”
Investigators determined that Kevin Akins then traveled to another apartment on Shadow Lane, located roughly 4 miles across town.
The second apartment was home to Cindel Mae Rhoden, 33, the killer’s girlfriend. The mother of two girls was five months pregnant with a baby boy, according to a GoFundMe.
Inside, Kevin Akins shot and killed Rhoden and then turned the gun on himself, according to law enforcement.
The discovery was made even grimmer by a somewhat delayed order of official permissions — while police were waiting on a search warrant to enter Rhoden’s apartment, a man walked in using a key on May 24.
As it turned out, that man was Rhoden’s own father. He quickly exited the unit and called 911 to report finding his daughter and another man shot to death.
“Cindel was more than just a victim of this tragedy she was kind, full of life, and a devoted mom doing her best for her girls,” the second fundraiser reads. “Her daughters are now in the care of family, but they need help. We are raising funds to provide for their basic needs, funeral expenses, and a more stable future as they navigate this unthinkable loss.”
The first victim’s family took stock of common life events to relay a more banal but dire aspect of their current situation.
“Due to being with that man for 20 years, all of her financials were tied up in his,” Nicole Akins’ sister wrote. “She was on his life insurance policy, and given the nature of their deaths we are unsure what that means for it being able to pay for her funeral. We want to give her a service that she deserved, celebrating her kindness, her happiness, and her unwavering love.”
Law enforcement have not offered a motive as of this writing.
