Grandmother held as police investigate ax slaying of Detroit woman, 26, in Detroit-area home

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

The Detroit News

July 12: Police remove a child from a home in Highland Park, Mich., where a woman reportedly held her 3-year-old grandson hostage for several hours.

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich.

Police in the small Detroit enclave of Highland Park are investigating what a neighbor described as the bloody ax slaying of a 26-year-old Detroit woman in her boyfriend's home.

Mila Perry's body was found Monday inside the two-story wood-frame house not long after police arrested a woman described by witnesses as the mother of Perry's boyfriend and grandmother of their 3-year-old son.

The woman's name and age were not released and police did not return calls from The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the office didn't expect to receive a request for charges Tuesday.

An autopsy on Perry could be completed by Wednesday morning.

Ernest Jones, who said he entered the house during the attack, is sure it will reveal she was hacked to death.

The 45-year-old unemployed steel worker said he was unable to stop the attack.

"I don't ever want to see anything like that again," Jones told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Around noon Monday, Jones said he heard a scream and a woman he said was the sister of Perry's boyfriend ran outside, screaming, "My mother is going to jail. She just killed Mila."

Jones walked up to the house, and the sister let him inside.

"I saw blood in the living room and a trail of blood leading to the kitchen," he said. "There was a pool of blood on the floor and a bloody handprint on the wall."

Jones said he then looked down the stairs into the basement. Perry was on the basement floor. Another woman was standing above her, wielding a long, wood-handled ax.

"Mila moaned, 'Help me, help me,'" he said.

At that, he said, Perry's attacker — ax cocked above her head — yelled at the prone, bleeding woman: "I told you I'd get you!"

"She raised the ax like she was about to hit her," Jones said. "I turned my head and just got out of there."

When officers arrived, Jones said the grandmother was holed up in the house with Perry's son. Four hours later, he said she was coaxed into surrendering and arrested. The boy was not hurt.

Jones said Perry's slaying was the culmination of a tumultuous weekend in the neighborhood — a mix of cheaply built newer homes, older houses in disrepair and more than a few abandoned ones.

On Saturday, Perry's boyfriend argued outside the house with another man.

A short time later, Perry and her boyfriend's mother were standing on the front porch when they began to argue. Neighbors looked on as Perry was hit in the face.

The older woman then began to threaten the younger woman, he said.

"Everybody heard her taunt, 'I'm going to get you,'" he said.