Phoenix police: Woman shot victim, kept body for 3 days

A woman told police she shot another woman because she didn't believe in God and kept her body for three days as a shrine in her Phoenix apartment, according to arrest records.

Phoenix officers arrested Anitra Braxton, 39, on suspicion of first-degree murder Saturday after finding an unidentified body in her apartment in the 1500 block of West Missouri Avenue.

Police reported they were called to the scene and discovered the woman covered with a towel on Braxton's couch, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

Braxton told investigators that the body was a "shrine from God" and that she had shot the woman in the eye for not believing in God, the records said. The murder weapon has not been recovered.

She also reportedly told investigators that the body had been at her home for two to three days. Braxton maintained that the corpse on the sofa was actually her own body, the records added.

Braxton was cooperative with investigators but made statements that were "somewhat delusional" during interviews, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said.

"She will not tell us who the victim is. When we ask for the victim's name, she gives her own name," Crump said. "At this point, we're not sure what her thought process is or what type of mental illness she may be suffering from."

He added that that investigators have not been able to identify the victim, whom they described as a heavyset Black woman in her 30s or 40s.

Police reported the crime scene had been partially cleaned up and that the victim may have been pregnant. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday and the case may be classified as a double homicide if the victim was pregnant, Crump said.

Braxton was booked into a Maricopa County jail and is expected to face a charge of first-degree murder. She was being held in lieu of $750,000 bail, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6.

Ripped crime scene tape is all that remains outside of Braxton's empty central Phoenix apartment, located at the end of a ground floor hallway.

Fred Sorensen, who has lived at the complex for about two years, said he was not surprised to hear about the murder. He described it as being "not the safest neighborhood."

"I don't feel that it's that safe, but it's a place to live," Sorensen said. "It makes me wonder what kind of sick people are out here, but the world is full of sick people."