Woman found shot in South Side home

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Teonia Gowdy’s sister-in-law says no matter what Teonia may have done in her past, she was loved by family and friends.

Gowdy, 27, was found shot to death just after noon Wednesday in a home in the 400 block of West Boston Avenue. Her death will be ruled a homicide, says the Mahoning County coroner’s office. It is the city’s eighth this year.

Gowdy was found by friends in an upstairs room; those friends called police.

A steady deluge of cars and people came to see what was going on at the home.

One of those people was Marquia Jarmon, a sister-in-law of Gowdy, who said she wanted people to know Gowdy was a good person even though she had a criminal record.

Gowdy has three sons – age 10, 8 and 5 – and she talked of them constantly, Jarmon siad.

“She was a great mother,” Jarmon said. “She loved her kids.”

A search of court records shows a driving-under- suspension citation in 2008 and a carrying concealed weapons case from January that is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Gowdy was a passenger in a car in January that was involved in an accident, and a gun was found in her purse. The person who was driving the car died.

Jarmon said she knows the media and others will bring up those cases, but she wanted to say that is not the kind of person Gowdy was.

“Just because of her record, that doesn’t define her,” Jarmon said.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Ohr of the coroner’s office said Gowdy died of a single gunshot wound. He would not say where she was shot, however.

He estimated she had been dead for at least 12 hours before she was found, but he said an autopsy will have to be done to narrow that down.

The autopsy is expected to be performed today, after which a news release will be available, said Coroner Dr. David M. Kennedy.

Last year, there were 23 homicides in Youngstown. At this point in 2015, the city had recorded nine homicides.

Jarmon and other family and friends said it is sad that Gowdy will not get a chance to see her sons grow up. “She talked about her kids all the time,” Jarmon said. “She was very loved.”