Woman shot dead, found in Rock Hill yard

Police in Rock Hill are investigating the shooting death of a woman found behind a vacant house just a couple of blocks from city hall late Wednesday.

Latoya Cureton, 27, of Rock Hill, was found behind the house on Green Street, coroner officials said.

A motive for the killing is unknown. Police do not yet have a firm timeline of how the woman was killed, where the crime happened, or how long she was in the yard, Rock Hill Police Department Capt. Brent Allmon said.

A person who lives in the neighborhood who was walking Wednesday night after 7 p.m. spotted the body and called police, Allmon said. Cureton’s body was found just south of the intersection of State Street and Green Street.

There’s a small neighborhood store, the Green Street Superette, located next door to the house where Cureton was found. The home’s backyard would have been visible as people left the small store and walked along a short foot path to the rear, Allmon said.

More, the body was found across the street from east Moore Street Park, a city park with a basketball court and other amenities where dozens of neighborhood children gather each week day for York County's summer lunch feeding program.

A group of men and women on a porch of an adjacent house at the corner of Greene Street and State Street Thursday morning - just yards from the backyard crime scene - said they did not know anything about the incident or the identity of the victim.

Don Thompson, who lives in a home across Green Street from where the body was found, said that he has spoken to Rock Hill officials about the vacant home, and it is common knowledge about the path behind the house where the body was found that is often used as a cut-through.

Thompson said there were police and onlookers around the crime scene until late Wednesday night but had not heard anything about who the victim was or what happened just across the street from his home.

“I wish they would do something about that lot over there,” Thompson said

State Law Enforcement Division records show that Cureton was convicted of grand larceny in October 2014 from an incident in August 2014 where she fled from police with a man in the car who assaulted a police officer. She was sentenced to one year in prison to be followed by probation, court records show. Her co-defendant was sent to prison for four years.

Cureton had been free on probation since March, records show.