DETROIT (WXYZ) — Shortly after the body of 52-year-old Vanita Gray was found in her SUV on Houston Whittier at Hayes on Detroit's east side, her boyfriend drove up to a Detroit police scout car near Mack Avenue and Brush Street and told officers that someone killed his girlfriend.
A source tells 7 Action News that Vanita's 52-year-old boyfriend, who was armed with a gun, also told police that he shot the person who killed her, but the source says the boyfriend didn't have details to support his claim.
The only thing police knew for sure was that Vanita was dead from multiple gunshot wounds after someone opened fire on her in her SUV.
Someone called 911 around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to report a vehicle on the side of the road with bullet holes in the windshield.
Twenty-one shell casings were found in the area with some of the bullets hitting the glass window of a nearby furniture store.
And it didn't take long for police to go from calling Vanita's boyfriend a person of interest to the suspect in her murder.
Vanita and her boyfriend were living together in a home on Lakepointe, less than a mile from where she was killed. She was wearing flip flops and lounge clothes.
Action News talked to the sister of Vanita's boyfriend who said Vanita isn't one to hang out late at night and if she was ever out of the house at that hour, it was usually because she was looking for her boyfriend.
Vanita was reportedly employed in a rehab center. Her boyfriend was on disability, according to his relatives.
Right now, Vanita's boyfriend, who is on probation for retail fraud, has not been charged with her murder.
Anyone with information in the case is urged to contact Detroit Police homicide investigators at 313-596-2260.
