Now, her roommate is charged with abandonment of a corpse after police say the body was left in the unit for weeks.
As she sits inside her North County home, Ashley Barrett can't help but think about her sister, Lawanda McGee.
"She had just graduated from nursing school, so we were excited to see what she was preparing us for," Barrett said.
Barrett says she and her sister shared an unbreakable bond.
"We've buried pretty much everybody that we grew up with. Our parents, mom, dad, they're all gone. It was just us two, so we were close," Barrett said.
Though the two hadn't talked since early December, Barrett admits it wasn't until other relatives voiced their concerns about the silence that alarms started going off in her mind.
"I started calling the hospitals, you know, every hospital in St. Louis, just to figure out, hey, was she in the hospital? And then, I started calling other places just to see if maybe she was in other places. And then, I'm thinking to myself, she wouldn't be dead, because I would have gotten a phone call," Barrett said.
According to St. Louis County police, Barrett's worst fears were confirmed Jan. 21, when McGee was found dead inside her home.
"We're guessing she died on or around December 15th," Barrett said.
McGee's roommate, 49-year-old Terrance Smith, now faces charges of abandonment of a corpse for letting her body decompose for weeks.
"He sat with her for 38 days and just walked past her every day. He covered her with blankets. He tried to air the place out so no one could smell it," Barrett said.
Barrett says her family is now waiting for toxicology results to determine her sister's cause of death.
"She didn't deserve that," Barrett said.
Smith was charged on Feb. 2. His bond was set at $100,000.
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