Mother of 3 found shot to death in kitchen, police say

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Gwinnett police are searching for clues after a mother of three was found shot in the head inside her home, police said.

Detectives said a man told them he found his fiancée, Denise Bukart-Haynes, in the kitchen of their home on Anna Court in Lawrenceville Friday afternoon.

"I was just in shock. I immediately shook her, and then after the second shake, I was calling 911," said the man, who did not want to be identified.

Police said the 49-year-old woman was dead. Investigators initially suspected no foul play, but they are now investigating the mysterious death as a homicide after an autopsy.

"She was the type that would help anyone and anybody. She always tended to look for the best, the good in everyone," Bukart-Haynes' fiancé said.

The fiancé of the murder victim said one thing has baffled him: The woman's purse and all the couples' keys were left untouched. In fact, he said, nothing was taken from their house.

"With nothing being taken, I'm just wracking my brain about why? why? why?" he said. "I remember she used to say this is a safe neighborhood and nothing ever happens around here."

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The man said he was questioned at length by homicide detectives over the weekend.

"I volunteered to have them swab and whatever you need from me," he said.

He said the one thing he's relieved about is that he found the woman's body, and not her two children who also live there. The woman was also the stepmother to a third child.

Police are asking anyone who might have witnessed something in the secluded neighborhood behind the Five Forks Library to give them a call.

The woman's fiancé said he wants answers, too, as he remembered one of the last conversations he had with her.

"I just keep thinking about just a couple of days ago. She was even saying that you have to tell each other each time you see each other that, 'I love you' and give each other a hug because you never know what could happen, and now I think about what did happen," he said.

Cox Media Group