May 15th, 2023 – 4:25 PM
Summerville Police Department –
On May 15th the Summerville Police Department released the following statement:
“During the night of January 21st, 2023, Summerville Police Officers responded to the area of Sixth Street in Summerville in response to a 911 call about Lisa Sizemore possessing a red Chevrolet Avalanche truck that supposedly belonged to an unknown recently deceased individual. Upon arriving at 437 Sixth Street the responding officer found the truck stuck in the mud behind the residence and briefly saw Lisa Sizemore before she fled the area. The truck was found to be registered to Russell Keith Taylor of 31 Espy Street. An officer went to the residence but was unable to make contact with Mr. Taylor by phone or in person. The officer also noted that the residence appeared to be for sale as there was a realtor sign in the yard and it was nearly empty of furniture from what he could see through the windows. The truck was towed and impounded to be returned to the rightful owner.
On February St a second welfare check was attempted on Mr. Taylor at the request of his neighbor. This time the responding officer was able to visualize what he believed to be a body on a couch. Upon making entry it was determined to be the body of Mr. Taylor. No obvious signs of foul play were observed. Mr. Taylor’s body was sent to the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office.
Detectives later located Lisa Sizemore who stated that she had been outside Mr. Taylor’s residence cleaning gutters and doing odd jobs and when she went into the house she found Mr. Taylor deceased on the couch. Further investigation into the matter, which included a review of Mr. Taylor’s Ring cameras, revealed that Mr. Taylor and Ms. Sizemore had been spending an amount of time together in the days leading up to his death and she was indeed doing various odd jobs at the residence.
Mr. Taylor’s death is believed to be sometime on January 18th based on recovered video footage. Following Mr. Taylor’s death, Sizemore was recorded taking Mr. Taylor’s truck and loading up at least three pickup truck loads of various articles belonging to Mr. Taylor which included an electric bicycle and an outboard boat motor over the course of several days after she knew of Mr. Taylor’s death
The GBI Medical Examiner’s Office is ruling Mr. Taylor’s death to be complications from a medical condition and no foul play was found. At the conclusion of this investigation, Ms. Sizemore was charged with Felony Theft by Taking, Entering an Automobile to Commit a Theft (Felony) and the misdemeanor charge of Failure to Notify Coroner of a Suspicious or Unusual Death.”