WOODLAWN — The key to the slaying of a 25-year-old Fairfield woman might be her 7-year-old daughter, who was asleep in the back seat of a car when her mother apparently was shot in the head.

        The body of Cassandra “Sandra” Betts was discovered slumped behind the wheel of her late-model Mazda 626 in the parking lot of Woodlawn Auto Repair, at Springfield Pike and Marion Road, early Thursday, Woodlawn Police Chief Walter Obermeyer said.

        “We have a suspect (being sought) ... but we need to talk to the little girl,” Chief Obermeyer said.

        The Hamilton County sheriff's Criminal Investigation Section has been given control of the investigation by Woodlawn police. Ms. Betts' body was taken to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office for an autopsy.

        Frank Metz, an auto repair shop assistant, said the girl came into the shop shortly after 6 a.m. and asked to use the phone to call her father.

        Meanwhile, Jim Kiser, a friend of Mr. Metz's who stops by the business, found the woman's body when he went out to to talk to her.

        Chief Obermeyer said the girl, whose name was being withheld, was not physically harmed. She was taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center for evaluation.

        Investigators, including a detective trained in juvenile interrogation, were to question the girl hoping she could tell them how she and her mother came to be in the shop's parking lot, and whether she witnessed the shooting or was sleeping, police said.

        Police theorize the shooting occurred overnight at the scene. There was no obvious damage to the car or its windows.

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