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Two more killings bring toll to 64 in Camden

The onslaught of violence continued in Camden with hardly a pause as a 24-year-old woman was found fatally stabbed in her bathtub early Wednesday and, hours later, a 25-year-old man was shot to death in the 200 block of Grand Avenue.

The onslaught of violence continued in Camden with hardly a pause as a 24-year-old woman was found fatally stabbed in her bathtub early Wednesday and, hours later, a 25-year-old man was shot to death in the 200 block of Grand Avenue.

The two homicides took the toll to 64 this year, the most ever in the city of 77,000 people.

Walkeena Moody's former boyfriend, Robert Norwood, 47, of the 800 block of Chelton Avenue, was charged with her murder, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and city police said.

Moody had filed for a restraining order against Norwood on Aug. 28, authorities said.

Moody's mother, who lived with her, called 911 when she came home to find her daughter's body in their unit in the Tamarac Apartments shortly after 3 a.m. Moody died from stab wounds to her head and neck, according to an autopsy performed Wednesday.

Norwood is to be arraigned Thursday.

Police said the victim of the shooting reported just before 8 p.m. was Dontae Perkins, a city resident. Details were not immediately available.

The nine-square-mile city is perennially ranked as one of the nation's most violent.

On Nov. 9, a Cherry Hill man who was beaten and robbed, apparently during a drug transaction on Nov. 2, died of his injuries, tying the 1995 record of 58 homicides in a single year.

On Nov. 16, a 44-year-old man was fatally shot by a masked gunman as he sat in his car in the Fairview section for the city's 59th homicide.

On Nov. 20, a 32-year-old man wounded in a shooting earlier in the month died of his injuries, making him the 60th. Six days later, a 23-year-old man was fatally shot.

On Monday, a man shot in October died of his wounds, bringing the total to 62.

The violence has triggered anger, frustration, and sorrow. An antiviolence group has erected hand-painted white crosses in a park in front of City Hall in memory of homicide victims from this year and earlier.

The group, Stop Trauma on People, said the crosses are meant to shame officials into action to curb the rising homicide tally, but also decry and acknowledge the daily trauma inflicted on residents by poverty and violence.