Greensboro police investigate homicide after 83-year-old woman found dead

A quiet stretch of Battery Drive in Greensboro was jolted Friday morning when police found 83-year-old Chong McDaniel dead inside a home in the 5800 block, turning a death investigation into a homicide case.

Officers, Greensboro Fire crews and Guilford County EMS were dispatched at about 8:51 a.m. to the home, where investigators later said McDaniel had been found dead. Police said they are not looking for any suspects at this time and said there is no danger to the community, but detectives kept the case active as they worked to determine how she died and what happened before the discovery.

That shift from a death investigation to a homicide means investigators now have to piece together a timeline, determine whether there were signs of foul play and learn who, if anyone, had access to the home. The Greensboro Police Department’s homicide squad handles homicides, suicides, non-motor-vehicle accidental deaths, cold cases and other unattended deaths, and it works closely with the Medical Examiner and the Guilford County District Attorney’s Office.

Police have not identified a suspect, and they have not said whether anyone else was inside the home when McDaniel was found. The unanswered questions will likely depend on autopsy results, scene processing, interviews and any witness or surveillance evidence detectives can gather in the coming days.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000. The program allows anonymous tips and offers rewards of up to $5,000. The Greensboro Police Department says the Crime Stoppers program dates to 1981 and has helped lead to the recovery of more than $29 million in drugs and property in Guilford County alone.

The case also adds to a year in which Greensboro homicides have continued to rise and fall as investigations develop. A city release on April 9 said a separate homicide case was Greensboro’s fifth homicide of 2026, while a March 23 homicide story described an earlier case as the city’s third homicide of the year. As detectives work Battery Drive, the most immediate issue for neighbors is the uncertainty left behind by an unexplained death in a residential block that had been quiet until Friday morning.