Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- Police are investigating the death of a homeless woman who died after traumatic brain injury on Saturday.
Friends of 42-year-old Michelle Noce say she was constantly harassed and she was finally taking steps to get her life back under control.
Noce often camped out at the corner of Franklin and Harold streets in Syracuse.
Noce’s boyfriend, Randy Carmon, said they were ready to take whatever steps necessary to get help for their alcohol problems and to get them off the streets.
“If she wasn’t drinking, she was the most beautiful person in the world,” he said. “She really was.”
Carmon says he and Michelle were dating, but never had a place to call home together.
“We’d fly a sign to try and make money. We’d eat and we’d drink beer, yes…but that’s all we do. We don’t hurt nobody,” Carmon said.
Carmon believes someone hurt her. She died of a head injury that police are calling “suspicious." Carmon has been searching for the person who he believes attacked her for two days.
John Tumino brings meals to the homeless twice a week.
“When I first met her she was all black and blue and battered over a year ago. So it was an ongoing thing, but she said that she was ready to get out of that situation,” Tumino told NewsChannel 9.
Tumino was helping her try to get her life back together.
Carmon says they would sleep under an underpass, where he says other homeless people would often camp out as well.
Those who knew Noce say she would often settle into her spot and read novels and the bible.
“She'd sit there, and tell jokes and everything. Michelle, that's my little Michelle,” Carmon said.
A memorial service will be held for Michelle on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the corner of Franklin and Evans Street.
