Neighbors want answers in woman’s death at Fort Myers apartment

Monday, a woman was found dead inside a filthy apartment with children inside at Cypress Court Apartments in Fort Myers.

Fort Myers Police Department responded to the apartments off Palm Beach Boulevard and Seminole Avenue, where neighbors have concerns and unanswered questions Tuesday about what police reported as a suspicious death investigation.

We went to the scene when the coroner removed the woman’s body from a top-floor apartment, and we spoke to neighbors who told us they saw children walk out of the unit like they’d never been outside before.

Fort Myers police originally went to the apartments for what was reported as a medical call and then became a suspicious death of a woman.

A neighbor who spoke to us but did not want to go on camera for her safety said there were concerns days before the woman’s death.

“Two or three days ago, he be walking around asking for bleach from everybody,” the neighbor said. “I wish I was there to hear them fighting to be able to interfere with it.”

The neighbor said the victim was at the apartment for a few years with her boyfriend. The neighbor told us people in the community rarely saw her or even knew kids lived there too.

“I don’t even know her name. I don’t think anybody knows her name,” the neighbor said.

Neighbors told us what they were thinking when they watched as four or five kids were brought out of the apartment.

“They haven’t eaten in months. It was like a whole other world to them,” a neighbor said.

“I’m not trying to be funny, but it looked like those people from Africa, the Feed the Children commercials,” a neighbor said. “That’s how they looked.”

“They walked out in the world like they have never seen the world before. Like when they came out, they like this is a whole ‘nother world, like what is this?” a neighbor said.

The children were quickly taken away to be placed in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The maintenance staff told us the apartment is locked and considered a crime scene.

We’ve pressed Fort Myers Police Department for more information to confirm what happened, the suspects name, the victim’s name and the status of the children.

“It’s real sad because like because people look at things like that and be like, ‘Oh, it’s them,’ but I look at things like that could have been avoided,” the neighbor said.