Woman stabbed, set on fire in Detroit home

Fire crews in Detroit made a gruesome discovery early Thursday morning when they were called to a house fire on the city's east side. They found the body of a woman in the flames in the living room.

Authorities say it looks as though the woman had been stabbed several times, and then set on fire as an attempted cover up.

She was found in a home in the 5,000 block of Parker Street, which is near Van Dyke and Warren avenues. Firefighters were called to the home around 1:15 a.m. The victim has been identified by friends and family at 55-year-old Gracie Hughes.

"She had it hard. If you notice she still lived here all her life but for somebody to do this for her is senseless, because all she ever did was help everybody," said the close friend, Barbara Collins. "I'm just sad to hear all this killing that's going on in the city of Detroit. something has to be done about this."

Gracie's nephew, Ricky Sailes, says she didn't want to leave the home she grew up in, despite the fact that it had no utilities.

Investigators were on scene overnight, and cleared the scene just before 7:30 a.m. The victim's body will undergo an autopsy.

This is a developing story. Stay with FOX 2 for updates.