BOSTON -- Police said a trail of blood led them to the second-floor apartment of a Dorchester woman who died Friday after receiving severe head injuries.

Officers were called to a triple-decker at 7 Vassar St. at about 7 p.m., where they found the injured woman, who was in her 40s. Police said she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Boston police spokesman Officer Joe Zanoli said tenants called police after finding blood in the hallway. Although the BPD homicide unit is investigating the death, investigators have not yet ruled the incident a homicide.

Neighbors who spoke with NewsCenter 5’s John Atwater said the woman had recently been the victim of several break-ins, and others said they heard shouting from her apartment within the last week.

Nonetheless, neighbor Sharon Holley said she couldn’t fathom how the woman had incurred the head injuries that likely killed her.

“I just don't know who or why anybody would do something like that to her,” said Holley. “It’s just sad.”

Holley’s son remembered the victim, who was not been identified by police, as a devoted mother.

“Everything came first for her daughter,” said Special Holley. “School, if she needed money for a field trip or anything, it was always for her daughter. Her daughter came first.”

Detectives remained at the property late into the day Sunday collecting evidence from the scene. Officers also distributed a flier throughout the neighborhood asking for any information about the woman’s death.

No arrests have been made in the case.