Police: Exotic Dancer Found Beaten To Death

WARREN (WWJ) - Warren police are tracing the last steps of a young mother and exotic dancer found beaten to death in a pool of blood.

Police Commissioner Jere Green said 25-year-old Shalisa O'Dell's body was found by a family member in a home she was renting on Garrick Street near 9 Mile and Dequindre.

A cousin, who had been caring for the woman's 2-year-old son a few days made the gruesome discovery on Sunday, after growing concerned that she hadn't heard from O'Dell.

"There was obviously a struggle; a lot of blood," said Green. "There was quite a violent trauma to the head — several skull fractures. That would be the cause of death."

Green said there were no signs of forced entry into O'Dell's home, but her cell phone was missing.

Investigators believe that O'Dell, who worked as a stripper at Deja Vu — a topless bar on Woodward Ave. near McNichols in Highland Park — probably knew her killer.

"She's a dancer, and the first blush would be to gravitate toward that environment and think that it's a bi-product of where she works," said Green, "but I'm not really convinced that that's the direction that this is gonna take us."

Green said they've already been able to go through her phone records to find out who she'd been talking to and what she was doing on the day of her death.

There have been no arrests in the case, but Green said police have some leads. They're still looking for tips from the public.

In addition to her job at Deja Vu, a family member told WWJ O'Dell also worker a manager at Foot Locker.

O'Dell's is only the second murder in the city of Warren in 2013. It's also the second murder this year of a metro Detroit mother working at a topless bar.