Fayetteville, N.C. — Some local residents were on edge Thursday following four slayings within a week.

The four cases are unrelated, according to police, but they pushed the total for the year to 18, making 2007 the deadliest year in Fayetteville since 2002, when 21 people were slain.

Last year, 15 homicides were reported in Fayetteville, up from 12 in 2005.

"It's just a coincidence that we happen to have four in one week," said Jamie Smith, spokeswoman for the Fayetteville Police Department.

The victim of the latest homicide was identified Thursday as Lori A. Beaudry, 42, of 6720 Water Trail Drive, Apt. 103.

Beaudry's body was found Tuesday morning by officers canvassing the area around Meadowbrook Apartments after receiving a report of a break-in nearby, police said. She was found face-down on the bed with pillows stacked on her head, and it appeared someone had rummaged through the apartment.

Police haven't disclosed how Beaudry was killed, and no information as to a possible motive or potential suspects has been released.

Her husband, Spc. Joseph Beaudry, was training at Fort Bragg at the time of her death and returned home while police were at the scene, police said.

Joseph Beaudry, who recently returned from a 15-month deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom, is assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Lori Beaudry was on a leave of absence from her tutoring job at Mesa Community College in Arizona and had moved to Fayetteville to see her husband, whom she married before he deployed last year.

Neighbors said her slaying has left them uneasy, they said.

"We don't know if that person is still out there or who the suspects are," neighbor Patricia McRae said.

The other three homicides are as follows:

• Tremayne Hubbard, 36, was shot and killed on Oct. 30 at the Tropical Motel, at 4306 Bragg Blvd. Two Fort Bragg soldiers have been charged with second-degree murder in the case, and two other people have been charged as accessories.

• Weldon Baker, 47, was shot by two men on Nov. 2 after he noticed them acting suspiciously on Wichita Drive and said something to them, police said.

• Maria Pena, 42, was found beaten to death on Nov. 3 on a dirt path off Sycamore Dairy Road.

Police haven't made any arrests in the murders of Baker, Pena and Beaudry.