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GREENSBORO - Homicide investigators who had just begun working the first slaying of 2009 got a second case within hours.

Someone called police on Thursday night asking officers to check Rhonda Ann Wall's Georgetown Manor apartment off Merritt Drive because she hadn't been seen for a few days.

Police found her body when they went to the apartment at 3820 Overland Heights at 10:15 p.m. Thursday.

Investigators will not know what caused Wall's death until an autopsy is completed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill , said Capt. Janice Rogers , commander of the department's Criminal Investigation Division .

Rogers declined to say how Wall's death was ruled a homicide because releasing that information would jeopardize the investigation, she said.

Police did not have a suspect or a suspect description Friday .

Carlos Robinson , 27 , of Greensboro, a neighbor of Wall's, said he hadn't seen her in several days and her screen door, normally locked, had been open.

"She's a cool lady," Robinson said. "She pretty much stayed by herself."

Earlier the same day, detectives began investigating the city's first homicide, which happened at 1 a.m. on Phillips Avenue .

According to police, Octavius Orlando Wilson , 37 , was shot near the Claremont Courts public housing community. Police found him lying in the street. He later died at Moses Cone Hospital .

Detectives do not have a suspect description, nor do they know a motive for the shooting, Rogers said. Police ask people with information to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000.

Staff writer John Newsom contributed to this report.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com