Nikia Rogers, 36, was found dead inside a burning home near 83rd and Vienna in Milwaukee in the early hours of August 25, 2022. Firefighters discovered a container of lighter fluid near her body, but an autopsy showed multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide. Investigators believe the house fire was set to conceal the killing.

Attention quickly focused on Rogers’ 47-year-old boyfriend, Ernest Terrell Blakney, with whom she lived. Family and friends described a troubled relationship Rogers had been trying to end; she had told her mother she was planning to leave him and an acquaintance said Rogers called him crazy and had been moving her belongings out. After the fire, the acquaintance received texts from Rogers’ phone saying She dead and, when asked if Terrell was the sender, the reply was Yes. A warrant charged Blakney with first-degree reckless homicide, attempt mutilating a corpse, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Ten days before the killing he had pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault of a child and remained free on prior bail.

Police located Blakney on September 2, 2022; he was fatally shot by officers after a car chase and confrontation near Juneau and Edison Street. Did anyone in the neighborhood notice suspicious activity around the house in the days before August 25?