West side body found believed to be missing mother of two

DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit police made a deadly discovery of a body of a woman  feared to be a missing mother of two in a barren neighborhood on Detroit's west side.

Deann Robinson had a habit of taking off for periods of time and sources say it wasn't until police recently looked into sexual assault allegations against a relative, they realized she had been missing for more than a year.

Monday investigators believe they found her body.

"I stay in my house and I don't come out here, because there is too much going on," said Vickie Hampton. "I was shocked to hear someone died in the house."

Hampton watched Detroit police make the gruesome discovery Monday afternoon inside this long abandoned home on Sturtevant Street.

In the basement investigators believe they found the body of Deann Robinson.

Neighbors like Stanton Stephen say they never noticed anything suspicious.

"The tape and stuff, I was like what's going on," he said. "It has been a dope house but it has been abandoned for years."

Robinson, who was known for leaving for periods at a time, was last seen at her home on West Chicago in Detroit at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day 2015.

Police say she got into a white Chevrolet Trailblazer with a black man in his 40s and hadn't been seen since.

Sources say it wasn't until police began looking into sexual assault case involving a relative of Robinson’s that they realized she was still missing.

Using phone records,  investigators tracked the last person she was with to Alabama.

Sources say police were able to question the 48-year-old who eventually confessed to killing Robinson and dumping her body inside this abandoned house on Sturtevant.

The suspect has been arrested for murder.

Acting on that information, police found the body of a woman wearing clothes Robinson was said to last wearing.

But they are still waiting for the official confirmation from the medical examiner's office.

"It's terrible I just wish they tear these houses down - they have been empty for a long time," said Hampton.