Woman's body found stabbed in burned home, neighbors stunned

DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit firefighters made a gruesome discovery early Thursday morning. They were putting out a fire at a home when they found a woman who had been stabbed several times inside the charred remains.

Gracie Hughes, 55, was found inside her burned home on Parker. According to police, she had been hit in the head, stabbed multiple times, and then set on fire inside of her home.

After her death, balloons and prayers were lifted up in her honor.

"I don't know anyone that could've done something like this to her," Barbara Collins said. "For somebody to do this to her is senseless. All she ever did was help everybody."

Barbara said Gracie would spend time cleaning up the street, helping her elderly neighbors with groceries and was a joy to be around.

Gracie's nephew said they had tried to get her to move from the home that she had grown up in, despite the fact that it had no utilities. Friends said she kept to herself and was typically alone. On Wednesday, they said they saw with her a man and wonder if he knows something.

"I never know something like this would happen to her. she's a trooper. She was a trooper," her friend, Phil Williams, said. "She's not going down without a fight."

Detroit police are still gathering information on a possible suspect and an autopsy is expected to be done on Friday.