WOWT
May 21, 2014
Suspect Arrested
Police have arrested a suspect in the death of 38-year-old Tina Hoult. Anthony Burries, 42, was taken into custody Monday evening in Odessa, Missouri.
The Omaha Police Homicide Unit issued an arrest warrant earlier Monday for Burries for First Degree Murder.
Authorities in Missouri made the arrest. Burries awaits extradition back to Omaha.
Victim Remembered
Police investigators earlier identified the woman whose body was found Sunday in a southwest Omaha apartment as 38-year-old Tina L. Hoult.
TIna’s cousin spoke to WOWT. She is devastated about the news of losing her cousin, she called her sister.
“She was my rock. I ran to her when I didn’t know what else to do – especially in times of heartache like this. She was the one who helped me through.” said Shannyn Leffler, Tina’s cousin.
Tina was just 38 years old. Omaha Police found her dead in the Warren House Apartments near 97th & Mockingbird Drive on Sunday morning.
Shannyn is still struggling to deal with the news.
“I didn’t want to believe it. I still don’t want to believe it. We were so close that we never, ever considered ourselves cousins. We considered ourselves sisters.” said Shannyn.
“I just hope that the person who took my sister knows that justice will be served.” said Shannyn.
Shannyn describes Tina as blunt, charismatic, crazy, and wonderful. She says Tina grew up in Omaha and was a CNA.
“She loved her clients, her patients, her residents. She was just an all-out amazing caregiver.”
And as the family mourns her, they hope the person responsible for her death is caught soon.
“I want to see the person responsible for this go away for a long time.” said Shannyn.
Shannyn also says she found a gold angel at work Monday. She believes Tina sent it to her as a message from heaven.
Neighborhood Response
Police were sent to check Tina’s well-being around 8:30 Sunday morning and found her body in the apartment.
Neighbors were shaken by the news.
Donna Pulkinen said, “We were scared, shocked. We heard about it on the news last night, Channel 6, you know, it’s like, that is next door.”
Donna takes Buddy on his daily walk through her neighborhood but she was unnerved Monday after learning of the homicide investigation near the local police station.
She said, “It was kind of nice knowing that the police station was there but I’m wondering if that was a false sense of security. Maybe people think that they can get away with more because they are there and they do have a big area to cover.”
Neighbors tell WOWT 6 News that Hoult lived alone. They said that investigators told them not to say more. Apartment management also had no comment.