Alexandria (web | news) , Va. - Police report the death of 24-year-old Alexandria resident Juantissa Hill has been classified as a homicide.

Tuesday, around 2:30 p.m., police were called to the 300 block of South Van Dorn Street for a welfare check. Upon entering the apartment, officers discovered Hill. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hill has lived in the apartment complex on South Van Dorn Street for several months. While authorities are not talking about the circumstances of her death, it is considered a criminal investigation.

"The only thing we can say about her death is that it was violent," said Deputy Chief Blaine Corle of the Alexandria Police Department. "It's been classified as a homicide."

Hill's neighbors said she had just been transferred to the area a few months ago. A Yeoman in the Navy and a secretary in the officer of the chief of naval operations at the Pentagon, she had many friends. On Hill's MySpace page Wednesday, her friends wrote of their loss. One wrote, "a part of me died with Tessa; she was my friend 'til the end."

Now, Hill's neighbors want to know who would kill such a kindhearted woman and if their own safety is at risk.

"Knowing that that happened and that it's suspicious, you know, it's actually pretty scary though," said one neighbor.

Still, it's too soon to determine how Hill exactly how Hill died. "It's too early to know what the motive may have been or the circumstances around the event," said Corle.

Neighbors recall seeing the petite, athletic woman smiling and friendly at her apartment over the weekend. "I saw somebody coming out of her apartment," said another neighbor. "The last time I heard they were laughing and everything."

"It gets to you a little bit, especially when you know them and you see them and they're kind and now they're gone," said neighbor Wonder Fowler. 

Residents in the apartment complex said their building usually has a working security door, where a push button code is the key. In the past couple of days, however, it was broken by force.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Alexandria Police Department at 703-838-4444.

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