A Georgia professor found dead near a spa of a man who kills himself, another man is arrested

May 14, 2019, 15:49 UTC

By Elisha Fieldstadt

A car salesman was charged on Monday with the strangulation of a University of Georgia professor found dead near a hot tub in a man who committed suicide after the police arrived at the scene. .

Marcus Lillard faces charges of murder, concealment of a death and aggravated assault, said Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee on Monday at a news conference. Police believe that he strangled Marianne Clopton Shockley late Saturday night while she was traveling to Sydney Clark Heindel's home.

Police were informed of a drowning at home around 1 am Sunday morning, said Massee.

When the police arrived at their home in Milledgeville, southeast of Atlanta, "they decided that the scene looked a bit inappropriate" because of the "behavior of the people on the scene", and "There was blood," Massee said.

After placing Lillard in a patrol car, the agents told Heindel that he would be separated from Lillard and interviewed, said Massee. Then they left him alone.

Heindel then returned home and shot himself in the main bathroom, Massee said.

"This is one of the strangest cases where we have worked," added Massee. "I do not know how to explain this to people who are not part of our company, but when we arrived at the scene of the crime, there was something wrong, but it was rather weird, different from case. "

The investigators believe that Shockley had been dead for about two hours before the police were called because they had information about Lillard calling people Saturday night to ask them how to perform CPR and "basically how to save a life," said Massee.

The investigators believe that Lillard and Heindel have known each other for about four years. It's unclear how long Lillard and Shockley knew each other, but they arrived at Heindel's in the same car on Saturday night, Massee said.

Heindel was once a clinical psychologist, but was no longer licensed and owned a yoga studio, while Lillard was a car salesman and had recently quit his job, Massee said.

The Shockley faculty profile indicates that she has a PhD in entomology and has been working at the University of Georgia since 2001.

"On behalf of the university, I would like to express our deepest sympathies to the family, students and colleagues of Dr. Marianne Shockley," said a school spokeswoman.