Friend sees foot in yard, then discovers woman’s body, Florida cops say. Son charged
When a woman went to check on her friend, she spotted a foot sticking out from under a blanket in the backyard and a bloody trail leading to the home, Florida authorities said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has now arrested the deceased woman’s son, Eric Cobb, a 6-foot-9-inch former college basketball standout who attended the University of Connecticut and the University of South Carolina.
He’s charged with second-degree murder, police said Feb. 11.
The morning of Feb. 10, a friend of 51-year-old Erika Winford had plans with her that day but called her twice and didn’t receive a response, he told police, according an arrest report.
He said he drove to her home and saw the lights on, but no one answered the door. When he went around to the back to knock on her window, he saw blood on the back step and a bundle of blankets in the yard, police said.
He left and went to a mutual friend’s house, then together they went back to the home but still couldn’t make contact with Winford, according to police.
The second friend told officers after the two of them finally left, she decided to go back “because of the blood she saw,” the report says.
That’s when she noticed a foot sticking out from under the blankets, and she called the first friend to say Winford was “dead and wrapped in a blanket in the backyard,” police said.
First responders said they arrived at the home and unwrapped the blankets to find Winford inside, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
Officers followed the trail of blood leading from the blanket to the doorstep and went inside the home to find more of the bloody scene, according to the report.
There was blood on the freezer and in the hallway, although some of the blood appeared to have been partially cleaned up, police said. Officers reported finding dents in the floor that looked like they came from bullets, then they found 14 spent shell casings in the trash.
Police arrested Cobb, who was out on bond on a charge of resisting an officer with violence.
Neighbors told officers they heard gunshots and someone screaming, “He’s going to kill me,” the night before the discovery of Winford’s body, WTLV-WJXX reported from a police spokesperson.
No one called 911 at the time, Jacksonville police told The Florida Times-Union.
One of Winford’s friends recounted that Winford said her son was “possessed.” Cobb’s brother said he appeared to have schizophrenia, according to police.
Cobb played for the University of South Carolina as a true freshman in 2015 before transferring to Chipola College in Florida and finally to UConn.
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Friend sees foot in yard, then discovers woman’s body, Florida cops say. Son charged."