Andrea Susan Forbes was born in Tennessee on October 9, 1983. Her official date of death is listed as January 21, 2017, the day her body was discovered, but it had been days since her neighbors had seen her - neighbors who didn't even know her name.
While living in the Johnson City area of Tennessee, Andrea gave birth to two daughters. The older child was given a home by the girl's biological father, while the second child was adopted. Not long after this second failed romance, Andrea met Matthew Troy Lindsey, whom friends said moved to Alabama to make a fresh start around the middle of 2013.
Early in 2015, Andrea followed Matthew to Florence. Andrea had been abandoned by her parents, and family described her as being too trusting. While she was a certified welder, Andrea ostensibly never worked after arriving in the Shoals, and things did not always go smoothly with the couple.
By late 2015, Andrea and Matthew were residing at the Sherrod Apartments on the corner of Simpson Street and Florida Avenue. The complex was mid-sized, with the couple living on one end in #25. Other residents easily knew when the duo argued.
Matthew found himself in the Lauderdale County Detention Center in January 2017, charged with domestic abuse. His incarceration may have been the luckiest thing to have happened to him, since it cleared him of being directly involved in Andrea's death.
When police were called on January 21st to the ground floor apartment for a welfare check, officers looked through a window and saw what appeared to be a female body. Initially termed a death investigation, inquiries into Andrea's death quickly morphed into a homicide case when the initial autopsy results were released on January 25th.
Ten months soon passed without any progress being reported in the homicide investigation. Then Matthew Lindsay contacted the Shoalanda Speaks Blog stating that, at the time of her death, Andrea was pregnant with his child and he was offering a $6K reward for information leading to her killer.
Was any of that true? No. After the birth of her second child, Andrea had a tubal ligation and was unable to conceive. As for the 6K, Lindsey probably had less than $60.00 to his name. To fund the reward, he established a GoFundMe account which garnered only $25.00. He has since been in and out of jail numerous times; as of this publication, his last arrest was November 4th of this year when he was charged with a work release violation.
Florence CID has stated many details of Andrea's death have been held back in an effort to secure an arrest and conviction of her murderer. If you have any information concerning Andrea Susan Forbes' death, call 256-760-6500.