(WBTV) Investigators were called to the house just off Long Street around 6 on Friday morning.  The home is located on Spencer Street, just across from the East Spencer Fire Department.

Family members say Joan Marie Lark was beaten to death with a baseball bat by an ex boyfriend who had threatened to kill her in the past.

Lark’s mother, Kathleen Chambers Hill, told WBTV that Lark had recently “found God,” and that God had told her daughter to change some things in her life.  Lark then told her boyfriend he would have to move out of their house, according to Lark’s mother.

“They was going through some things,” a cousin of Lark told WBTV.   “She put him out about three weeks ago.”

Investigators confirmed that they had been called to the house before for domestic issues.  Lark was helping to raise six of her grandchildren, and all were at home at the time of the murder, according to family members.

Lark’s mother told WBTV that the oldest child, a teenager, found Lark in a pool of blood on the floor of the house.

“She said ‘she’s dead,’” Hill told WBTV. “She said ‘there’s blood everywhere she’s lying in the floor in a puddle of blood, we tried to save her but we couldn’t get her to wake up, we ran out the door.’”

Lark’s mother said she didn’t think the children witnessed the murder, but they did tell her they heard a lot of “bumping and banging.”  They also said that the ex boyfriend had threatened to kill all of them, as well as Lark.