A 21-year-old Huntsville man and a 22-year-old woman were found dead inside an apartment on Johns Road on Sunday evening, and investigators say there is no evidence anyone outside the pair was involved in their deaths. Huntsville police have identified the two as Jordan Darnell West, 21, of Huntsville, and Synquavia Keyona Staples, 22, of Roanoke, Alabama.
Officers were dispatched to the 300 block of Johns Road around 7 p.m. Sunday for what Huntsville Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Chris Jackson described to the Dothan Eagle as an attempt-to-contact call, after someone reported that two people inside the residence might be dead. According to WAFF, officers arrived and located a man and a woman inside the apartment, both of whom were pronounced dead at the scene.
Huntsville Police Department's Major Crimes Unit processed the scene and, per the same account, found no evidence that anyone outside the two individuals was involved in their deaths. Authorities have not released details regarding the cause of death.
A Nursing Student Days From a New Chapter
Staples had celebrated a major milestone just weeks earlier. A Facebook memorial post shared September 28 says she had recently received her white coat at Jacksonville State University School of Nursing's GOLD-AACN ceremony on August 17, marking her formal entry into clinical nursing studies. Staples was 22.
Jacksonville State University's nursing program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and operates out of the school's South Complex in Jacksonville, Alabama, per Jacksonville State University.
Pending Autopsy and What Alabama Law Requires
Under Alabama law, unattended, unexpected, or suspicious deaths must be reported to the county coroner and investigated in coordination with local law enforcement and the state forensic sciences agency, according to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. State forensic pathologists conduct official autopsies to determine cause and manner of death, meaning formal findings on what happened inside the Johns Road apartment remain pending.
A City With Falling Violent Crime, but Still Grieving
The deaths land against a backdrop of improving citywide safety statistics. Huntsville Police Department data released in February showed an 18% decrease in violent crime and a 9% drop in overall major crime from 2024 to 2025, Rocket City Now reported. Giles also said violent crime in Huntsville fell 50% between 2019 and 2025 even as the city's population grew 24% amid expansion in the aerospace and technology sectors.
For now, the losses of West and Staples remain an open case, with police having ruled out an outside suspect but no cause of death yet made public.
