Coroner: Two victims identified in Efficiency Lodge shooting on Boxwood Place

A man and woman found dead inside a room at the Efficiency Lodge on Boxwood Place have been identified, the Muscogee County Coroner’s Office said Saturday.

Damian Antwonne Belle, 23, and Kelsey Marshall, 21, of Columbus were both pronounced dead of multiple gunshots wounds by Muscogee County Deputy Coroner Charles Newton about 7 p.m. Friday at the 1776 Boxwood Place hotel. Both bodies will be transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Decatur for autopsies, said Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.

The coroner said the manager of the business went to the ground floor room to collect rent at the hotel when the bodies were found. The coroner’s office was contacted at 6:42 p.m.

A crowd gathered briefly outside the hotel as police responded to investigate the deaths. A police officer remained on the scene late Friday night to secure the scene until the bodies were removed.

The deaths remain under investigation by the Homicide Unit of the Columbus Police Department.

The death of Marshall was a shock to friends on social media. Some were in disbelief while others remembered her as a sweet and loving person. She was a graduate of Carver High School and had attended Columbus Technical College, according to Facebook.

Records show Belle had encounters with law enforcement in the past. In March 2014, he was charged with first-degree child cruelty and murder in connection with the death of 23-month-old girl. The child died at Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta after she was airlifted with a head injury from Columbus.

Bryan said the two homicides are the 40th and 41st in Columbus this year and they are the 33rd and 34th listed by Columbus police. The coroner’s office does not differentiate between a homicide which police consider a murder and one it determines as manslaughter or a justifiable shooting.

The deaths come more than two weeks after 21-year-old Jawhon Armstead was shot Nov. 28 on Curry Street and died at Midtown Medical Center.

Ben Wright: 706-571-8576, @bfwright87

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Coroner: Two victims identified in Efficiency Lodge shooting on Boxwood Place."