。
Word is that she was killed.
Literal
She [topic-は] was-killed [that-という] story is.
という話だ is a sentence-final hearsay frame, literally 'it is the story that X' — used to report secondhand information with a touch more narrative weight than ~そうだ. 殺される is the passive of 殺す ('kill'), marking the woman as the recipient of the killing action — a direct passive. Note 話し here uses the okurigana variant of 話 (はなし). Both forms appear, with 話 the more standard kanji-only form and 話し carrying a more written-flavor formality.