A hearing this spring supplied new allegations in a case that had largely stalled while the defendant underwent treatment to restore competency.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Nearly two years after deputies found Theadra Fleming buried behind her Ypsilanti Township home, the murder case against her grandson has reentered an active phase, with a March 31 hearing outlining the prosecution’s allegations after a long pause tied to competency treatment.
Ronald Savoy Fleming, now 31, is charged with open murder in the death of his 73-year-old grandmother. He was arrested in May 2024 after a welfare check at the home turned into a homicide investigation. But the case did not move quickly toward trial. Instead, it slowed for about a year while he received treatment at a state forensic psychiatric center after being found incompetent to stand trial. Only after he was deemed fit to assist in his defense late last year did the court process regain momentum.
That procedural history is key to understanding why a case that shocked Ypsilanti Township in spring 2024 has produced some of its clearest public details only now. In the days immediately after the arrest, the basic facts were stark but limited: deputies went to the Warner Street house on May 17, 2024, because relatives had not heard from Theadra Fleming; Ronald Fleming was there; disturbed dirt in the backyard led to the discovery of her body in a shallow grave; and prosecutors filed an open murder charge. Beyond that, many of the finer points that often emerge early in a homicide case remained underdeveloped in public because the proceedings slowed. The recent preliminary hearing changed that by putting a detective on the stand and moving the case from raw accusation back into a formal evidentiary setting.
At that hearing, Detective Heather Morrison testified that Ronald Fleming told investigators his grandmother had been pushing him to get a job and attend school. Morrison said the argument escalated physically and that Theadra Fleming turned toward him and tried to claw his face. According to the detective, he said he then placed both hands around her throat and strangled her until he felt her neck snap. He also claimed that she had approached him with a knife and lunged before he attacked her, a statement that introduces a possible self-defense theory without resolving it. A medical examiner later ruled that Theadra Fleming died by strangulation. The hearing did not answer every question, but it converted rumor-level discussion into sworn testimony about what prosecutors say happened and what the defendant said after the killing.
The case file has therefore developed in two stages. The first stage was the emergency response and charging period in May 2024, when officers and family were still searching for a missing woman and suddenly found her buried on her own property. The second stage is the current period, in which the court is finally testing the sufficiency of the evidence after the competency interruption. That interruption matters because competency is not a side issue in criminal law. A defendant who cannot understand proceedings or assist counsel cannot simply be rushed toward trial. In practical terms, though, that safeguard also meant that a homicide case with intense public interest sat in a slower lane while treatment continued. By the time the March 31 hearing was held, the defendant’s age reported in news accounts had changed from 29 at arrest to 31, underscoring the time that had passed between charge and renewed proceedings.
Even with the legal pause, some facts have stayed constant across every stage. The victim was Theadra Fleming, a retired registered nurse and quilter remembered by relatives as active in volunteer work. Deputies found her body wrapped in a quilt in the backyard, according to public reporting. Ronald Fleming has remained jailed without bond. And the charge has continued as open murder, giving prosecutors room as the case develops. What remains uncertain is how the defense will frame the confrontation described in Morrison’s testimony, whether prosecutors will refine the charge later and what additional forensic or witness evidence may still come into court. The recent hearing supplied a narrative, but it did not conclude the case.
The pacing of the proceedings has also shaped the family’s public experience. Ronald Fleming’s father told local television after the body was found that he sensed something was wrong when he arrived during the welfare check. He described the discovery in the backyard as surreal and said he could not bring himself to speak with his son after hearing investigators describe the killing. Those reactions came before the competency delay, which meant the family then had to absorb not just the death and arrest but a long wait before the courts could resume ordinary motion. In that sense, the March hearing was not just another filing date. It was the first major public step in a case that had been suspended between accusation and adjudication.
Now the prosecution is moving again. Ronald Fleming is scheduled to return to court on May 26, when the next stage should show whether the case continues steadily forward after the long interruption that defined much of its path to this point.
Author note: Last updated April 21, 2026.