It was supposed to be a normal Sunday morning in Charlotte for Ahylea Willard, 32, who was out grabbing a bite to eat. But the day ended in travesty after she was found dead from a gunshot wound.
“Sunday was horrible for me,” Willard’s mother, Mary McMasters told WBTV at the time of her daughter’s death in late October. “Getting the news, I was just leaving church. I was hysterical because I couldn’t believe that somebody had murdered my baby, my baby girl, my only daughter.”
McMasters says something told her to call her daughter moments before she died.
“I was headed home from work – I work in Raleigh – and she just dropped in my spirit and I said, ‘Let me call Leah and see what she’s up to.’ When she answered the phone, I said, ‘Hey baby girl, what you doing?’ She said, ‘I’m out eating.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to bother you but I just want to tell you I love you and please be safe out there,’ and that was the last time I heard from her.”
Police say they responded to a call around 10:30 a.m. and arrived to find the victim’s body lifeless from a bullet wound.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
A video has since gone viral of Willard’s death. Her mother says she was devastated to discover it on Facebook.
“Car is missing, items she has is missing. Things stolen off her body. Videos was on Facebook of her lying there, in the posture she was in,” McMasters recalled upon finding out about her daughter’s death.
On Monday, authorities arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with Willard’s death. Tyquawon Parker has been charged with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and firearm by felon.
The investigation into her murder is still “active and ongoing,” police officials said in a statement.
Meanwhile, her family has set up a GoFundMe to support her family with funeral expenses.
“She was the life of the house, the life of the party,” McMasters said, adding that her faith has kept her going through this trying time in her life.
“It’s given me a peace that surpasses understanding. I keep telling my husband without it, I don’t believe I could have stood these last couple of days.”
