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Navy officer killed weeks after alleged domestic violence incidents

By Nicholas Sakelaris

Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A newly promoted naval officer and mother of three was found dead at her Jacksonville, Fla., home Monday, the same day she was scheduled to seek a permanent order of protection from a boyfriend.

Chief Petty Officer Andrea Washington was found dead after midnight on Sept. 17. The Jacksonville Sheriff's office is treating the case as a suspected homicide. Details on how Washington died have not been released.

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On Sept. 2, police responded to a domestic violence incident at the home earlier this month. A police report states her boyfriend, Danny Beard, pushed her down, kicked her in the stomach, then kicked in the bedroom door and a closet door and put a gun in her face, saying he was going to kill her.

Beard left the home and Washington went to a hospital with no significant injuries.

Washington was granted a temporary order of protection from Beard on Sept. 5. The hearing for a permanent order of protection was set for Sept. 17, the same day Washington's body was discovered. Beard was in court for the hearing and the case was dismissed because of Washington's "failure to appear."

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Beard has not been named as a suspect in Washington's death and he hasn't been arrested for the earlier domestic violence incident. Police couldn't find him at his listed address. Beard does have a previous arrest on an aggravated battery charge from 2001 in South Florida.

Washington also went to police in June saying she was getting a barrage of threatening text messages from spoofed phone numbers.

She was a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and worked as a gas turbine mechanic on the USS Hue City, a guided missile cruiser based at Mayport.

Phantom McClendon, a fellow Navy colleague, told First Coast News that Washington was promoted last week. He said he bought her a bottle of cognac to celebrate.

"She loved her boys. Her sons were her life," McClendon said. "Her heart was made of gold. She was the type of person that she would give you her last dollar and the shirt off her back if you needed it. And that's just how she was."

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