Renter Describes Earlier Odor Complaint Before Quincy Apartment Discovery

City says police are witholding public comment while investigation is underway, only to say there is no public threat

QUINCY�Many have only come to know the young woman in Apartment 11 at 200 N. 8th Street after the grisly details of her death emerged awash in the lights of the police squads that converged on the property Thursday, September 24.

Police and the Adams County Coroner�s Office are now investigating the death of Destinie Sue Daniels, 24, who has already been only tentatively identified. Given the condition of the body, dental records are necessary to 100 percent verify.

�Due to the decedent�s deteriorating condition, it was decided that the identification process would need a few extra steps to confirm a positive identification. Dental records have been obtained and are pending official forensic odontologist examination and confirmation,� coroner Scott Graham noted in a news release Friday that also added �Preliminary findings are consistent with evidence and information provided by family members and witnesses that the decedent is 24-year-old Destinie S. Daniels.�

Daniel�s father, Russell, told Muddy River News the coroner told him the woman they found in the apartment had been dead for several months.

MRN returned to the apartment building on Saturday, where a fragrance of some kind now fills the hallway, where a foul odor was still detectable Thursday night, even after the remains were taken from the scene.

Now I know what death smells like

Multiple people on the second floor answered their doors, offering what information they had on condition of anonymity, fearful that if they spoke on the record, they would be evicted.

The responses ranged from having no idea what was going on to an odor that was detectable beyond the immediate neighbors of Apartment 11.

None of them put the pieces together regarding what was exactly happening until the coroner arrived.

�I�ve been smelling for weeks, not knowing what it was,� one renter told MRN. �I knew it smelled like death, but I didn�t know what kind of death. I thought they had used some poison and the mice were dead in the walls.�

The hallways are lined with many doors. However, each door does represent an apartment. They are just holdovers from when this was a courthouse. MRN did not observe any units that actually shared a wall.

Still, a resident claims the odor became so overpowering that it was detectable even in the hallway separated from Apartment 11 by an elevator lobby.

A renter was emphatic that their roommate called the police on September 17, and that at least one officer responded and explained there was nothing they could do.

As per media protocol, Muddy River News reached out to the city�s communications strategist on Saturday to formally request an interview with Quincy Police. In particular, we asked to know if there was a record of a police response related to the apartment or a welfare check before the discovery of the body.

�No reports have been made by QPD. I will speak with Chief. As of yesterday (Friday), they were still investigating. Nothing to release besides that there was no threat to public.� Communications Strategist Kristin Dreasler-Niemann responded.

Two community members say they also notified building management, but that their point of contact, a man named Jordan, explained he didn�t smell anything.

Jordan did forward the following message to MRN on Saturday evening:

�Yes. A tenant reported an odor in the hall area initially on the 15th of September. My partner and I had been there a majority of the day cleaning. The tenant reported odor later that day, I let her know we had been there most of the day and hadn�t smelled any foul odors.

�I asked my partner the next morning if he smelled anything the day before. He noted he did not. We were there the next day and walked the halls, which we do a few times a week to check on things, and neither of us smelled anything of the foul nature.�

Jordan explained QPD contacted him on September 24 to let them inside the apartment.

He explained he was not contacted on September 17, when one tenant explained QPD responded to their roommate�s complaint of an odor.

The tenants who spoke on Saturday were clear that the smell started at the beginning of September.

�We smelled something three weeks ago and thought it was an animal,� one renter explained. �I haven�t seen anyone go in or out of that apartment since February or March.�

This same renter explained they never saw a woman, only a guy who would often be on an electric bicycle or driving a green car that remained in the parking lot on blocks. MRN observed police taking a closer look at the vehicle the night the body was discovered.

At least one renter reports seeing a woman, but only in passing. They are also the third resident to confirm a foul odor multiple weeks earlier.

This person�s account:

�Now I know what this smell is, and I�m devastated. When she would go into the apartment, it was very quick. They kept to themselves. I�m not an instinctive person. I never saw anything physical.�

And, they hadn�t seen any activity since before St. Patrick�s Day.

�I figured she got lucky and moved out of this place. She was a beautiful girl. So pretty. I don�t think I ever heard any altercations. I feel that if the building owner had come himself (to check on the odor complaint), someone would have noted that something is not right, sooner.�

When seeking comment from building owner, Brian Hendrian, he responded by Facebook messenger:

�Leaseholder was a male and only name on lease. Had lived there about two years with no problems. No maintenance requests. No problem with the unit,� Hendrian continued. �I feel for the victim�s family. Very sad.�

Facebook gets ahead of public disclosures related to the investigation.

Social media posts have already jumped to conclusions regarding what happened to Daniels, even naming a suspect before police have even classified the crime or the coroner has issued a cause of death.

Coroner Scott Graham told MRN, as he was leaving the death scene that night, that social media has become a challenge to the inquiry process, noting that there was a recent case where he went to notify family members in person of a relative�s death, they told him they already knew because of Facebook.

MRN waited to publish its original report until it spoke with Daniels� father, Russell, who acknowledged a strained relationship where he did not see his daughter with any regularity.

In an interview after he had already talked with police and the coroner, Daniels blamed his daughter�s former partner for creating a distance between her and her family, and she often skipped around the region.

�I did try to get a welfare check a couple times, over here, a couple of them done in Missouri and she took off and went with this guy,� Daniels said. �Basically, I was told there was no cause for it, being an over-concerned parent, whatever. The Iowa police told me if I did another check, they�d arrest me for harassment.�

When he did find out she was in Quincy, he didn�t want to press.

�I found out she was here and I didn�t want her to run no more, so I�d knock when he wasn�t there. He was the problem, I think.�

He explained he was grateful she she waved to him from the window of Apartment 11 on December 23.

�I tried again, but they wouldn�t come to the window,� he recalled.

He tried again in January, knocking on the door, but there was no answer. And last month, he tried when her step-sister died, and still no answer.

Now he knows why and it�s killing him inside.

�I failed her,� Daniels said.