FRANKFORT -- Robert Young was playing cards when a swarm of police vehicles poured down the main street of his small mobile home community.
Authorities focused on a residence occupied by a couple Young barely knew, and it became apparent they weren't there for a minor incident. Police from multiple agencies stretched crime scene tape across a small white-and-grey home and got to work.
"The neighbor lady called and said the (street) was filled with cops," said Young, who scrambled out on his porch for a closer look. "When I saw that yellow tape, I knew something was up. I knew someone was dead. I didn't know if it was him or her."
Police are treating the death of Valerie Maidella Smith, 52, as a homicide. Authorities discovered her body in the home off Elm Street at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday after her brother asked police to check on her.
Smith died of blunt force trauma to the head, Frankfort Police Chief Keith Redder said. Officers found her on a bedroom floor after no one responded to repeated knocks on the door.
"We're not exactly sure, but there's a possibility she'd been in there since Sunday," Redder said.
Smith lived with Robert Lester Cheek, 54, who was arrested Monday after an alleged assault on a man near Bear Lake in Manistee County. Authorities are probing a possible connection between the two incidents and consider Cheek a "person of interest" in Smith's death.
Redder said investigators don't have a motive for Smith's alleged slaying, and Manistee authorities continue to investigate the Monday incident. Police arrested Cheek shortly after he allegedly assaulted a man, 35, and sent him to the hospital with head trauma.
Manistee authorities had no "red flags" that would necessitate a check on Smith after the Bear Lake assault, Redder said.
Redder said authorities found a baton under the bed in Frankfort, and Manistee police recovered a hammer after the incident there. But investigators aren't sure if the items played a role in either incident, he said.
Cheek faces two felony assault counts in Manistee County and remains in custody there.
Residents of the mobile home community said they rarely saw Smith or Cheek, whom authorities said maintained a personal relationship. Smith moved to the area from the south and was on disability, police said, and neighbors said Cheek was unemployed.
"They were very quiet, and they very seldom went anywhere," Young said. "Since I've been here, I've only seen him two or three times, and her twice."
Next-door neighbor Robert Tate said they kept to themselves.
"The drapes were always pulled," he said.
Tate said he awoke to the police commotion at about 1 a.m. Thursday. He knew something serious had occurred, and he wasn't entirely surprised when authorities wheeled out a body bag on a gurney a few hours later.
"I suspected that was going to happen," Tate said. "They had the full crime scene investigation, with the white booties and everything else ... they don't do all that fuss for a natural death, I don't think."
Tate was still trying to gather details Thursday morning.
"I called the landlord. I was concerned if we have a killer in the neighborhood," he said. "I came from Tucson, Ariz., a big city with lots of crime, and this is the closest I've ever been to it."
Roberta Dilley, who has lived for 45 years in one of the community's homes, didn't see much of Smith or Cheek. She was surprised to find out authorities were treating the death as a possible homicide.
"The boyfriend had been living with her for five or six years, and I thought she was getting along OK ... I thought they were happy."
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