Woman found slain in East Germantown house

A 68-year-old woman was found slain in a ransacked house in the city's East Germantown section early yesterday, police said.

At 1:03 a.m., police responded to a report of a burglary in progress in the 6300 block of Magnolia Street and found someone had removed a rear window screen and entered the house, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.

"The woman was found at the bottom of the basement steps in a pool of blood," said Little, who declined to name the victim. A neighbor said the woman's name was Ellen Walton.

Records show that Walton lived at the address. The house had been ransacked, Little said.

About a half-hour before the police call to the house, police responded to the 1300 block of Yerkes Street in East Mount Airy for a report of an automobile accident, Little said. Police found the victim's unoccupied gray Toyota RAV4 in the middle of the street with a flat tire. No arrests were reported. - Robert Moran