When I lived in an apartment there was an attic access in the ceiling of a closet. It gave me the creeps to think that a person might be able to crawl through from one unit to another. A construction worker who helped build that building would know if there was any place he could slip through up there to get from one apartment to another. They are supposed to be completely walled off but who knows if that is very closely checked during building inspections or not? I would imagine that in a large apt building the inspector might get up there and closely inspect one or two and assume that the rest were built accordingly.
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You know, I saw a true crime case just like that on one of those mystery/forensics shows once so you had a good reason to be creeped out!
These aren't large buildings, they're garden-style. But I agree--it's probably not even something a building inspector would think much about checking. Especially since the developer is pretty well respected in the community.
If anyone is interested, I drove over there today to scope out the situation. Like I said, it's literally a stone's throw from my house, on the other side of the beltline (our word for a beltway).
I only saw one building ready for occupancy, but there must be at least one other--probably back toward a pool area. It's so under construction right now that I felt really conspicuous driving around too much.
Crime scene tape was cut so people could get in and out and construction was back in full force. Judging from the amount of yellow tape, and the empty and occupied police cars, I believe she was in the same building as the model home--which is right along the road. Could not tell which floor.
I walked up to the police officer in one car and asked if he thought it would be safe for me to move in there. He said it wasn't normally his beat but it's usually a really good area. I asked if he would let his daughter move in there and he said yes, he would.
In retrospect, I wish I'd approached it from the angle of angle asking why they told other residents to stay elsewhere. Because he's probably sitting there looking at this luxury apt community in a nice neighborhood and thinking it's nicer than where he lives!
So I'm not sure you can infer much from his answer.
The other road her building is on (Ramblewood) backs up to the sound wall for the interstate. Single family homes in that neighborhood are at least $500K+, one is currently for sale at $900k.
While you could use the road by her building to cut over from one main road (Six Forks) to another largish one (Lassiter Mill), there's really no reason to. Anything worth walking to (grocery, etc) would be on Six Forks. Lassiter Mill is just a long street of more $500k+ houses. And if you're going to North Hills, you're better to just stay on one of those streets b/c Ramblewood is so long and windy.
(BTW I'm only talking home values b/c I think we tend to think of apartments as being in not-so-great areas. That is definitely not the case here.)
The whole little neighborhood has a ton of construction going on though. Even a vendor I talked to couldn't seem to keep straight what was what. Her apts are going in on the site of an older apt complex that was razed. A small enclave of new single family homes is being built just behind it. And new upscale townhomes are being built behind that, although a good chunk of those are finished.
I wouldn't say the neighborhood is isolated. But it's not typical of neighborhoods closer to downtown where people travel through them to get other places and where a big boost in property values has created more of a mixed situation in terms of housing and income.
Bottom line, no way someone was just wandering by those apts that night and spotted her in a window or whatnot.
