Suspicious Death In Dalton

Dalton Georgia detectives say the circumstances and evidence at the scene where an 88-year-old woman died don't add up to an accident or natural causes.

Dalton police got the 911 call at about 2:00 pm Sunday from a woman who said her grandmother was unresponsive, according to Whitfield County Coroner Bobbie Dixson.

When officers and paramedics arrived at 606 Stillwood Drive they found Nadine Plant dead. She had lived alone in the quiet east Dalton neighborhood.

From the outside it doesn't appear there are signs of forced entry into the house. Neighbors say she was quiet, kept to herself and was only seen outside taking her garbage container to the curb. It appears someone else maintained her house and yards.

Dalton Police officer Chris McDonald said he can not explain what detectives found at the scene or if there were apparent signs of trauma to Plant's body.

"Just to say that there was evidence to lead us to believe that the death was of a suspicious nature. Whenever we have that we're going to treat it as a homicide," McDonald said.

Plant's body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Atlanta for an autopsy Monday afternoon.

In the meantime, Dalton Police have taken an unusual move by establishing a hotline for this case. McDonald says his department already has a crime tip line where people can leave information about any crime or investigation, but it's not manned and calls are taken by an automated voice mail system.

"But we decided, based on this case, that we wanted as much information as we could get and we wanted to have an officer sitting there for anyone calling in," McDonald said.

If you have information you think will help investigators in this case, call 706.278.9085, extension 120. Police say calls will be handled in a confidential manner.