Aspiring funeral director, 24, found slain in apartment
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police haven't identified any suspects in the slaying last week of an aspiring funeral director in Columbus.
Rachael Anderson didn't show up for work at the Shaw-Davis Funeral Home on Jan. 29, the day after her 24th birthday, reports the Columbus Dispatch. Friends and family members couldn't reach her by phone, so officers went to her apartment, where they found her dead, an apparent victim of a homicide.
Columbus police haven't released more information about her cause of death and haven't identified any suspects. A call to the department wasn't immediately returned. Anderson's cause and manner of death is still pending, according to the coroner's office.
"We don't know exactly what happened, what caused her death, but the homicide unit is currently investigating," Sgt. Dean Worthington told CBS affiliate WKBN.
According to an online obituary, Anderson was an aspiring funeral director embalmer. Records show Anderson graduated from high school in Warren and attended Youngstown State University, where she made the Dean's List in 2015 and majored in prerequisites for mortuary science, according to WKBN.
She continued her education at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, according to the obituary, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mortuary science in 2016. After graduating, she began apprenticing at the Shaw-Davis Funeral Home, where she planned to pursue her career, according to the obituary.
"We knew she was in good hands and to say in my daughter's words, 'I will work for them forever,'" the obituary said.
The obituary said she had many passions throughout her life, "first and foremost, her career."
"She had the gift of compassion," the obituary says.
PJ Macali, owner of the Warren Plaza Giant Eagle, a Warren supermarket where Anderson worked for several years, described her to WKBN as a wonderful person.
"To know Rachael was to love Rachael. She was just a beautiful soul and she would do anything for anybody," Macali said. "She came to work here every day with a smile on her face and she left here every day with a smile on her face."
