GALVESTON, Texas — Authorities have asked for further testing that could help solve the 2007 death of a woman found hanging in her bathroom.
The death, originally reported as a suicide, was ruled a homicide months later.
Wanda Denise Curry, 45, was found in her apartment in the 400 block of 15th Street, hanging from a cutout in her ceiling by her robe sash. Police believe a maintenance worker cut the ceiling to stop a water leak.
Police freed Curry and she was rushed to the hospital, but she died May 12, 2007, her daughter Latasha Ba said.
Curry, a Lawton, Okla., native, moved to Galveston and was living with her fiance, Stanley Smith, a man she met on a Christian website, police and Ba said.
"There was an incident," Ba said. "I don’t know why she went back, to try to work things out or if she had stuff there. A couple of days later, she was dead."
Charges have not been filed in connection with the homicide, which investigators said was staged to resemble a suicide, Galveston police Detective Fred Paige said.
The Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office listed Curry’s death as asphyxiation by another.
Smith, 50, has not been accused of wrongdoing in Curry’s death. He was, however, arrested and charged April 30, 2007, with assault causing bodily injury-family violence. He was released on $1,500 bond. Police listed Curry as the victim. The case hasn’t been adjudicated.
Curry filed charges with Galveston police about a week before her death. She was gathering belongings when she was strangled with a cord to an electrical surge protection strip, according to police records.
Curry had no suicidal history, Paige said. The couple had plans to marry, Ba, a native of Oklahoma City, said.
"I had just had a second child a month or two before this happened," Ba said. "She’s all about her grandkids. She wouldn’t do something like that to hurt us, to be out of her grandkids’ lives."
The district attorney’s office asked police to send evidence collected at the scene for further testing.
+++
How To Help
Police Detective Fred Paige asked anyone with information to call him at 409-765-3766.
This story was brought to you thanks to khou.com’s partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.
