People who live near Macon Street in South Charleston can't believe what happened inside a house in their quiet neighborhood.

Meg Britt who lives just down the street says, "This is a good neighborhood. Our kids play and ride bikes, the neighbors are out here talking, people walk their dogs. This is very scary to think something like this could happen next door to you."

Police say 51 year old James Gillespie was murdered inside his home.

South Charleston Police Chief, Brad Rinehart, says, "We had a brother call and ask to do a check on his welfare. When they got there they found some suspicious things outside and looked in the window and saw him laying in the house."

Some neighbors told Eyewitness News they saw traces of blood outside Gillespie's home. Now Amanda Gillispie, who lives just down the street, but is not related to the victim, says she's worried about her family.

"My husband goes out of town sometimes and we're by ourselves. It makes me nervous." says Gillispie.

"I've never experience anything like this and I've lived in South Charleston my whole life." says Britt.

Chief Rinehart says the Macon Street area rarely has any problems.

"We don't have a lot of problems there. We ran the call history there and we don't." says Rinehart.

Gillispie says, "You see kids walking around but never anything this bad. I guess you just never know."

Police are still not releasing a lot of details about the crime scene because they don't want to compromise their investigation.
They say they do have some strong leads but still no arrests have been made.