Authorities: Ex-boyfriend killed woman found dead in N. Philly fire

A 34-year-old woman found dead in a May fire in her ex-boyfriend's North Philadelphia home was killed by "homicidal violence," the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office has ruled. Philadelphia Police Homicide Capt. John Ryan said police believe Tavonia Love was killed by the ex-boyfriend, Anthony Eubanks.

Love was found dead on the morning of May 21 in a second-floor bedroom of Eubanks' rowhouse in the 2100 block of West Susquehanna Avenue. A police source said after the medical examiner's July 28 ruling that Love's body was so badly burned that it is not possible to prove exactly how she died. The source said authorities believe that after killing Love, Eubanks set fire to the mattress on which her body was found.

Eubanks, 34, a physician and a son of Municipal Court Judge Joyce Eubanks, took his own life with a gun the day after Love's body was found. He had completed his medical residency at Temple University Hospital in May 2013. More recently, he was rehabbing his rowhouse to accommodate a community health clinic.

At the time of the deaths, Eubanks was facing charges of aggravated assault and related offenses in connection with an alleged Nov. 10, 2016, break-in at Love's Radnor Township home in which he allegedly tried to strangle her with a dog leash. Love was then known as Tavonia Silmon. In February, she married a North Carolina man named Kenneth Love and moved to Charlotte to be with him.

She returned to the Philadelphia area to testify at Eubanks' May 18 preliminary hearing in Delaware County. The hearing was postponed, and three days later Love was found dead.