True Crime with Kimbyr - Teen Murdered JUST DAYS After Her MOM Begged For Help!: Part 1

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

In this emotional episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha uncovers the heart breaking story behind a roadside memorial adorned with frogs and a fading message of love. Sixteen-year-old Joshan Ashbrook’s impulsive decision to sneak out after an argument would lead to unimaginable tragedy. As her family searched desperately and authorities dismissed early warnings, a community was left asking: How could this happen? With compassion and deep research, Kimbyrleigha reveals the layers of grief, missteps, and a family’s love that still echoes at the memorial today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's just a normal weekend. You're driving down a familiar road listening to some music and enjoying the sound of the road underneath your tires. The sun is just warm enough through your car window to remind you that summer is here. But something catches your eye off the side of the road. A flash of blue and curiosity gets the best of you.

You slow down just enough to take a closer look. It's a cross, bright blue, surrounded by flowers and keepsakes. You've probably passed these roadside memorials before and felt that quick and uncomfortable moment of sadness. Someone's life lost too soon. A family's grief permanently etched into a street corner. Sometimes it's just a cross or candles, but this one was decorated with frogs.

Yes, frogs, plush frogs, ceramic frogs, frogs dressed in little clown suits encased in clear boxes, perched and peering at passing drivers with their glassy eyes. It was strange. Or maybe it's just strange. because then your gaze lands on a handwritten placard, slightly faded by the sun, but still clear enough to make out the message. It says, have I told you lately that I love you?

And the curiosity hits you as hard as the sadness. It makes you wonder, what happened here? Who was so loved, so cherished that their family marked this spot, filled with frogs and memories, and they returned every month to keep it clean year after year? Well, you won't have to wonder, because I'm going to tell you everything behind this roadside memorial, a tragedy compounded by failures, grief deepened by mischances, and questions that echoed unanswered through the years of sleepless nights beneath all the frogs and the poems and the memories is a heartbreaking story that should have never happened. To a girl named Yoshan Ashbrook,

whose life and death will make you sad and equally curious, could one call, one, act, one moment, really have changed everything. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. And if you've never been here before, I'm Kimberlea. It's nice to finally meet you. Now, I want you to think back for a second. You're 16 again. You just got your driver's license.

Or maybe you don't even have one yet, but you're feeling invincible as you climb out of your bedroom window or sneak through a creaky front door at 2 o'clock in the morning. Your heart is pounding in your chest. the adrenaline is rushing through you as you tiptoe past your parents' bedroom, knowing full well, you would be grounded for months if you were caught. But the rush, the thrill of freedom, it's intoxicating. The world seems boundless and exciting and danger. Danger feels so distant.

It's some blurry thing that adults only worry about. It's something that happens in the movies, not in your life. Most of us can remember at least one moment of reckless teenage. Rebellion, hitchhiking rides with friends after parties, staying out past curfew, hanging out with strangers who seemed friendly enough, never really asking ourselves the one question we should have, what's the worst thing that could happen? Because the truth is, when you're a teenager, consequences rarely feel real until suddenly and tragically they are. But imagine this. Imagine that one impulsive decision, that quick choice that you barely think through doesn't just end,

in a grounding or a lecture. Instead, it changes your life forever, or worse, it ends it. In just 36 hours, a teenager's life and the lives of those who loved her changed forever. For 16-year-old Yoshawn Marie Ashbrook, it was just another argument with her mom, another impulsive choice to sneak out before dawn,

to walk away from the home she lived in with her parents thinking that she would just cool down and come back later. like she always had. But this time would be different. What happened next turned into every parent's worst nightmare and every teen's ignored cautionary tale. It would haunt an entire family and leave a community asking,

how could this have happened? So let's start right there. It's early in the morning on Wednesday, July 31st, 2002 in Newport-Ritchie, Florida. Tara Ramsdale wakes up. It's barely sunrise. And immediately, she noticed that something is off. She walks by her daughter, Yoshan's bedroom, and she sees the door open.

Now, normally at this time, Yoshaun would still be asleep, but her room is empty, and the bed looks untouched. Here's the thing, though. Yoshaun had run away before. This wasn't exactly new. She was 16 and going through that rebellious stage where she would argue a lot with her parents, especially about wanting more freedom. The family had their struggles. Yoshaun had been experimenting with marijuana, and there were definitely some tensions at home. Tara had been trying really hard to get her daughter help. She even filed a petition under the Marchman Act, which is basically this legal tool in Florida

where parents can get the authorities involved if their child has substance issues. The court even approved it just two days earlier, but no one served the order yet. Yoshaun didn't even know about it, and we'll get into more of that later. But that morning, when Tara sees the empty bed, her first thought is that Yoshaan was just probably

blowing off some steam. Maybe she was at a friend's house or taking a walk. So she tried to reassure herself, saying, Yoshan has done this before. She'll come back. She always does. For some reason, this time felt different. Tara just had this nagging gut feeling. The kind of feeling that moms will tell you about where they just knew something wasn't right. So she checked the whole house, nothing. She looked outside, no sign of Yoshan. By this point, She's feeling worried enough that she wakes up her husband Robert to help her look. And together, they start checking all of her usual spots. They're driving around town.

They're stopping by friends' houses, places where Yoshaun might go when she's upset. But everywhere they go, no one has seen her. No one has heard from her. So it's starting to sink in that maybe this isn't just Yoshaun blowing off steam. By 6.32 a.m., Tara was on the phone with the sheriff's office filing a runaway report. A deputy took down the information, and when she asked what she's supposed to do now, he answered, it's just a matter of time. Imagine hearing that. A matter of time until what? It's basically like teenagers do this all the time, she'll probably show back up, just wait it out. But Tara couldn't

shake that feeling that this time was different. But to understand why, I want to go back for a second. Let's talk about Yoshan. Before we get deeper into what happened, it's really important that you get a clear picture about who she was, because it makes everything hit so much harder. Yoshawn Marie Ashbrook was born February 21st of 1986 in Kokomo, Indiana. Her nickname was Yo-Yo, and she was raised mostly by her mother, Tara Lynn, because Yoshawn's biological dad wasn't really in the picture. When Yoshaun was really young, Tara married Robert Ramsdow,

and he became a dad to her. Helping raise her along with Tara and together they created this huge blended family, totaling 10 kids. Yes. Let me know if you come from a big family. I have two half sisters, a half brother, but my mom was married four times.

Yes, she was. So considering my former and current step siblings, there was 10 of us as well. It's pretty crazy, so I can imagine the very full household. Yoshaun had six brothers, Corey, Isaac, Jason, Joshua, Zach, and Nicholas.

And she had three sisters. Katrina, Adrian, and Jenny. So just imagine the chaos, but they made it work. And I'm assuming since they probably are all different ages, they weren't under the same roof at once. But they were all still very close. And growing up, Yoshaun had the closest bond with her younger sister, Adrienne.

They were loud, energetic, and it was pretty overwhelming it sometimes because the house was so chaotic, but there was always a strong family feeling and bond there. And Yoshan and her mom, Tara, had really good times together. There was this funny story that the family always talked about where Yoshaun and Tara were hanging up this long blue curtain in her room and they didn't have the right tools or anything

so they ended up using a hot glue gun. Obviously, it didn't hold up very well. But instead of being frustrated, the kind of people they were is they just laughed about it. But the whole thing came crashing down. Her grandma Pat always talked about how Yoshaun joked that she could win any wrestling match against her grandma and Yershahn definitely underestimated how strong Granny Pat really was.

What Granny might have lacked in youth, she made up for with her strong biceps. These are just funny stories that her family told, and it gives you insight about who they are and their personalities. When Yoshaun was pretty young, her family moved from Indiana down to Florida, first to a small place called Dover and eventually to New Port Ritchie, a city in Pascoe County, situated along Florida's Gulf Coast, about 35 miles in. northwest of Tampa. This area at the time in the late 90s, early 2000s, was kind of between being rural and suburban. There were definitely some struggles in the community like poverty and

substance issues, especially among the younger generation. When they initially moved, Yoshawn's family actually lived in a double wide mobile home off Massachusetts Avenue until they were able to save enough money for a bigger home. And eventually, they settled on a modest concrete house at 6104, Sheelanland Drive, Newport Ritchie. the house was busy and full of life. And as you can expect from a big family, there was always something going on. Before Yushan, it was both a place of love,

but also teenage frustration. You know when you don't really want to do chores, you don't really want to have responsibilities, and as you get older, you just want more freedom. So let's talk more about her personality because Yoshaun had a big one. She was vibrant, expressive, and really into music. She idolized Britney,

Spears like a lot of girls back then and she even co-wrote a song called Juana with her sister Katrina. She was only 12 and they just like poured all of their teenage dreams and frustration into these lyrics that they scribbled into notebooks or across their homework assignments and I have a portion of the song so I want to play it for you. I want to love you but could you love me too? I feel so safe when I'm with you. I want to love you. I really did think, listening to that, she had talent early on, and she could have gone really far with singing. She also had the look for that, you know?

I think from what I know about her, her passion, her ambition, who she was, her personality, I think she could have done anything she wanted. She loved writing, too. She would write in journals. She would write poems, anything creative. She would always scribble down her thoughts or song ideas in the margins of school papers or random notebooks. She was also super into dancing, which came. naturally as well. She could do everything and anything. She would dance in front yards,

which she would turn into stages for her neighbors, that would become her audience, and she would choreograph dances for her neighbor's kids, and everyone would come to watch. She would make up these cute little routines with an eight-year-old neighbor named Sky. And she was also known for our collections. She had tons of marty-graw beads and this huge thing for frog memorabilia. I guess it would be memorabilia, all kinds of little frog figurines. stuffed animals, everything was about frogs. It was her signature thing. Plush frogs, tiny porcelain ones, key chains, magnets, each one, a quirky piece of her world. She even kept her Little League softball jersey for years, taking it with her whenever the family moved, tucked away,

gently faded but treasured, and she cherished every moment that made her who she was. Yoshaun's style was bold. She wasn't afraid to stand out. She dyed her hair bright pink and other colors and wore outfits with a ton of personality, and she just had this way of making a statement without even trying. She was unapologetically herself, and that's what a lot of people loved about her. When it came to her future,

Yoshon had big dreams. Even though she loved singing and imagine that one day she would be on the big stage or even famous, her ultimate goal was to become an entertainment lawyer, someone who could help artists get fair contracts and not be taken advantage of. She was a vocal about this all the time, even saying that she could never do criminal law

because she didn't want a risk of an innocent person being sent to jail. I thought that was interesting. And it really spoke volumes about her character. She cared deeply about protecting people and making sure that things were balanced. To those closest to her, she was fiercely loyal. She wasn't afraid to stick up for you or somebody else.

She was brave. She would speak her mind. And despite any struggles she went through, she was always smiling. She was someone, you know, you wouldn't forget if you saw her even once. She had that much of a lasting impression. But despite how vibrant and loving Yoshaun was,

her teenage years were pretty tough. She had trouble keeping up her grades in high school. So to guide her to make better choices, her mom took her out of public school and enrolled her at an education center, which wasn't the typical high school. It was tailored for kids who needed extra support or maybe a different approach to learning

for kids in grades 6 through 12. And Yoshaun fit in, right away. Teachers and staff work to give students a second chance, helping them find their strengths and build confidence. The hardest part of life, though, was at home for Yoshaun. She wanted to be free. So badly, she just felt trapped and controlled. She struggled so bad with restlessness and just a desire that really, like, clashed with her family because she wanted to do things and they wanted to protect her. Tara and Robert knew Yoshaun loved them, but she kept pushing their boundaries. She didn't want to ask for permission to do things.

She wanted to just do them. And she felt she was mature enough. And she knew best. She was street smart and could handle whatever life threw at her. But her parents knew better. Many teenagers think that their parents were born yesterday and that we can't possibly understand them how deep they are. We'll never see eye to eye.

They say it all the time. But we do. That's why we protect them. We do know because we were teenagers once. But Yoshaun just wanted her own space, the ability to do what she wanted when she wanted, and this didn't work out well at home. Tara and Robert found out that Yoshaun started experimenting with marijuana. And when that happened, Tara was deeply worried about her daughter's choices,

especially when she started doing some digging. Now, you may or may not agree with this, and I understand, but we do have to protect our teenagers. We do have to protect our children. Her mom ended up uncovering something that led her to believe, that Yoshaun was hanging around older men and possibly trading intercourse for substances. She was also engaging in risky behavior online with strangers,

and this was when chat rooms were really popular. Tara didn't feel like Yoshaun was safe. She tried to talk to her about it, about the dangers of meeting these random people, but Yoshaun told her, don't worry, but they were worried, especially her stepdad. When Yoshaun started running away and leaving the house, which she did frequently, especially any time she would get into argument with them.

When she came back and things cooled down, Robert would wait with her at the bus stop every morning just to make sure she stayed safe and would get to school on time. So now they were kind of monitoring her, which probably felt more suffocating in Yoshaun's perspective. When she would run off and sneak out, Robert would frantically go out searching for her. He was terrified every single time that this could be her last. They were that worried. But every single time, she would come back and she would reassure him that she could take care of herself. Still, through every disappearance, every worry-filled night, every heated argument,

Yoshaun's family refused to give up on her. They knew that she wasn't lost. She was just searching. She was trying desperately to find herself. And her mom did everything she could. That's why on July 29th of 2002, just two days before Yoshaun disappeared, Tara filed what's called a Marchment Act petition. It all started on Monday morning.

Yoshawn had finally returned home after yet another episode of running away. And Tara just had this sick feeling inside of her that if this kept happening, Yoshaun could end up never coming home either by choice or because something bad could happen to her, something deadly. She was desperate for help this time when Yoshaan returned. Something clearly wasn't okay. She was erratic. She was unsettled and agitated like she had possibly been given something.

So at 8 a.m. that morning, right, Right when the Judicial Center opened in West Pasco County, Tara took Yoshon inside. She was clearly distressed. Her behavior immediately caught the attention of a bailiff, and they were concerned. They quickly flagged down a deputy, and the bailiff said to him, you might want to talk to that mom. The deputy then spoke privately with Tara, suggesting she file a petition under Florida's Marchman Act.

This was a law that allows families to seek immediate help for loved ones dealing with substance issues. It allows an individual to be assessed and treated even without consent if they meet certain criteria. To qualify for this involuntary intervention, a person must lack control over their substance use, pose a danger to themselves or others, be incapable of recognizing their need for help, and these petitions can be filed by family member or guardian or three unrelated individuals with first-hand knowledge of a person's behavior. So that could be a therapist, it could be a law enforcement officer, and Tara truly believed intervention could finally save her daughter. If the court finds that the petition is valid, the person can be held up to five days for assessment and

stabilization, and a judge can order a 60-day treatment for this person, and an option to extend that if necessary. The treatment settings include detox, whether it's residential or outpatient programs depending on a person's situation. And in this petition, Tara didn't hold back. She wrote, my child is in trouble. If I keep her home, she will run away again. She added that she believed Yoshan was involved with adult websites and that her daughter had previously been admitted to the Harbor, which was a mental health and addiction treatment center. But she was refusing to take her medications. When asked to outline her concerns, Tara listed chronic runaway behavior, frequent contact with significantly older men, bringing substances

into the home and engaging or being coerced into trading her body in exchange for substances. By late Monday morning, the court had already taken action. Around 11 a.m., Judge Daniel Disky officially signed off on Tara Ramsdale Marchman Act petition for Yoshon. A local treatment facility even confirmed, they had a space available for Yoshan. So the judge immediately ordered the Pascoe County Sheriff's Office to pick her up for mandatory assessment and treatment. The signed order reached the Sheriff's Office between 5 and 6 p.m. that same evening. But here is where things go terribly wrong. For reasons that we will never understand or know, the order just sat there. No deputy was assigned to handle it. No calls. No follow-ups were made. Nobody reached out to Tara

to try to pick up Yoshan. Nothing was done. From what I read online, the procedure is supposed to be that a sergeant or lieutenant assigned to the case will assign it to a deputy to go pick up the person that needs to be assessed. But that never happened. Yoshawn stayed at home all day Monday and the entire day Tuesday. She was right there on Sheelan Drive in Newport Ritchie. Exactly where law enforcement could have easily found her if they just acted on that court order. Tara was anxiously waiting. She even called the sheriff's office only to be told she needed to bide her time and that deputies would get to her when they could. I can't imagine being told that and Tara just felt helpless. She was trapped with all the red tape. You know, it was a nightmare. She had to jump through all these

hoops just to get help for her daughter. But that's a lot of her. Then Tuesday passed and still nothing. And by Wednesday, more than 36 hours after the court had approved that order, Tara's anxiety turned into panic. Around 4 p.m., she reached out to the sheriff's office again, desperately telling them that Yushan had briefly left the house earlier with a friend against Tara's wishes.

But luckily, she came back. Yoshaun was still home, still reachable, so she told them, please hurry. Then it happened again, just hours later when no one showed up. Around 2 o'clock in the morning, early on Wednesday, Tara faced her worst nightmare. Yoshaun was gone. She had slipped out of her bedroom window into the night.

And this brings us back to when Tara noticed she was gone in files that runaway report at 6.32 a.m. on Wednesday, 36 hours, and everything had changed. Just like that dispatcher said, it's only a matter of time. Sadly, time that meant the difference between life and death. Between 3 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the same day the terror officially reported Yoshaun missing? Guess what? A deputy was finally arriving at the Ramsdale home. In fact, the deputy came by twice, the one that was supposed to pick her up on the Marchman Act days before this.

But now Yoshaun was already gone. The deputy found out that Yoshaun had friends that were working at the Chequers restaurant on Ridge Road right near U.S. Highway 19, just about two miles from her house. And people there said they saw Yoshan in that area earlier in the day, visiting friends and hanging out. But after that, Yoshawn simply vanished. How does an argument turn into a parent's worst nightmare overnight? Why didn't anyone help Yoshaun when they had the chance? Questions that plagued her loved ones.

Yeah, Yoshaun's family never judged her harshly. Instead, they understood she was a teenager. She was navigating life's complexity, trying to find herself figure out who she was, push boundaries, and learn from her mistakes. They saw her struggles clearly, especially with growing anxiety and her attempts to self-medicate.

As viewers, I know that we can't help but recognize parts of ourselves in Yoshan, her dreams, her struggles, her fears, and her strength. She was every daughter, every sister, every friend, someone you wanted to protect, you wanted to support, and to cheer for.

She was just 16. She was beautifully imperfect. She was wonderfully, just huge. and she was deeply loved. But it's like she didn't know how much. Many times we give our parents grief as kids until we grow up and realize just how much they loved us, how much they cared.

And then our time with them is limited and we can't help but regret that we didn't realize all of that sooner. But for Yoshaan, Tara, Robert, and all their friends and family, they couldn't have imagined just how precious every moment they shared would become or how suddenly their world would shatter.

And now as Yoshawn, Yoshawn's story begins to unfold. Her family and everyone who knew her would soon desperately wish they could just turn back time, just to protect her, just to hug her, just to bring her home safely again. It was a waiting game, but they wouldn't have to wait very long. That night, Yoshawn's bed stayed empty and untouched. Her siblings were confused and scared, and they slept huddled together, taking comfort in each other's presence, and Tara sat in the living room staring at the phone.

terrified of even missing a single call that might lead her to where her daughter was. It was impossible to sleep. Every noise that the house made, every passing car brought a brief moment of hope that was quickly extinguished by the silence because no one walked through the door. Tara replayed her last conversation with Yoshon over and over again, searching for any clue that she might have missed, anything that might explain why she wasn't home, why she wasn't safe in her bed, where she belonged.

As the sun came up, Yoshan's family still had no answers, only an empty bedroom and unbearable questions. Where was she? Was she hurt? Was she safe? Had someone harmed her? The morning of Thursday, August 1st, 2002,

was quiet, and the air was muggy. It felt thick and heavy, and the sun was already promising a lot of heat. For most residents of Newport Richie, it was just an ordinary morning. Commuters heading off to work, kids waking up for summer camp, life moving forward in its predictable routine. But on this morning along a quiet secluded stretch of northbound Shady Hills Road in Pascoe County,

ordinary life would come to a sudden jarring stop for two utility workers, Randall Toll and Robert Killian. They worked for an electric company and they were just beginning their daily rounds. It was routine work, checking power lines and inspecting equipment. Nothing unusual. Nothing remarkable. At approximately 9.20 a.m., as Randall guided their truck slowly down the road, something caught his eye at the roadside, a shape, partially hidden in tall grass, about 30 feet from the pavement. At first glance, it looked almost like someone had tossed away a mannequin or an oversized doll. The sight was unusual enough that he slowed the truck

down, and he started to squint, trying to make sense of what he was looking at. Randall inched closer to get a better view, telling Robert, he thought he saw something odd, so he parked the truck. Robert could sense the shift in Randall's tone, so they both stepped out of the vehicle, and together, they moved cautiously through the dry, rustling grass. And as they got closer, there was a sickening dread that washed over them, because it wasn't a man again. It wasn't trash. It was a girl. She was lying face down, partially clothed, curled onto her left side.

Her body was unmoving. Her hair covered part of her face, hiding the worst details. but not the undeniable truth. She wasn't breathing. Robert knelt down beside her as he reached out a hand to check her pulse, and his fingers brushed against her skin, and that's when he could feel the coldness. She was stiff.

There was no pulse. She was dead. Randall quickly stepped back towards a vehicle and called their boss to report the discovery and to alert the authorities. As they waited, the men looked around the body and noticed tire impressions, going east to west, and then reversing back.

towards where this girl was lying on the ground. Randall had some experience working with tires and he believes that those marks came from a truck. And within minutes, that quiet road transformed into an active crime scene. Pascoe County Sheriff's deputies arrived quickly, and Randall relayed everything he knew, including the information about the tire tracks. Yellow crime scene tapes stretched across the trees marking off the area as investigators methodically moved in, carefully stepping around evidence that had yet to be cataloged. Deputy Bocquet was among the first responders to the scene, and even at first glance, it was clear the young woman had suffered something horrific.

Her body had unmistakable signs of struggle. Her legs and arms were marred by dirt and bruises, clear evidence that she'd been dragged here away from the road. She was only wearing a black bra, a striped tank top, and a light-colored sweater that was pulled all the way up to the top of her shoulders, twisted and positioned awkwardly, indicating a possible struggle or someone handling her very roughly. She wasn't wearing pants, underwear or shoes, and she still had on three necklaces, a ring on her right hand, and two pairs of earrings in her ears. Deputy Bocet made note of her

visible injuries as well, distinct ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, clear indications that she had been bound at some point, restrained against her will. Denny scanned her hands, noticing distinct defensive wounds, tiny cuts, abrasions, evidence that she tried desperately to defend herself. and most significantly, a deep slash across her throat. But something else caught his attention. In the palm of her left hand, clutched tightly between her fingers were strands of hair that didn't look like they were hers. This piece of evidence was crucial.

It immediately suggested that she had managed to grab her attacker in a desperate struggle, and this could be vital. They needed to preserve it for DNA analysis. Crime scene technicians were called in, and analyst Denise Weigen processed the body at the scene, focusing on the collection of trace evidence that might help, identify the perpetrator or shed light on how the struggle occurred. She collected multiple strands of hair that appeared to be foreign. Four hairs in the woman's left hand, one hair in her right hand.

Potential hairs were collected from her right shoulder, abdomen, and lower back. At approximately 11.30 a.m., Dr. Noel Palma, the district medical examiner, arrived on the scene. He estimated that the woman had died approximately eight hours earlier, around 3.30 a.m. that morning. It wasn't immediately clear whether she had been killed at that location or if her body had been moved there after she died. Her body was then transported to the morgue for an autopsy. Now, at the morgue, same doctor, Dr. Palma, did a detailed autopsy revealing the horrific extent to this woman's injuries. The slash two, her neck was severe. Shockingly, that wasn't the cause of her death.

She had sustained multiple blows to her head and face, causing bleeding in her scalp and her. brain and she had at least six sharp force wounds, stab wounds to her face, red ligature marks on her ankles and wrist, as well as her neck. There were also particular hemorrhages in her eyes, which were typically found in severe strangulation or if you were any chokehold. But most gruesome and devastating was the discovery that her neck had been violently twisted, breaking her cervical spine, essentially snapping her neck with brutal force. This dislocated her very much. This dislocated her vertebra at the base of her skull. Dr. Palma believed that the order of injuries likely began with the knife wounds, escalated to blunt

trauma, and ended with the violent dislocation of her neck, which was believed to be the fatal blow. He explained that such dislocation could result from something like a half Nelson, which would have extreme force on that portion of the neck. All injuries were determined to have occurred prior to death, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide. She had fought desperately for her life. Her hands and arms were covered in cuts, bruises, and sad wounds as she tried to ward off her killer.

She had done everything she could, fighting back with every ounce of strength that she had left, and perhaps most hauntingly significant. The strand of hair, complete with fruit that was discovered deeply embedded in a wound on her thumb. It wasn't her hair. It belonged to her attacker. She had scratched or grabbed her killer so fiercely. that she pulled that hair directly from their scalp. The strand of hair was tiny and fragile,

but soon it would become one of the strongest pieces of evidence in this entire investigation. Toxicolity tests revealed that the young woman had alcohol and nicotine in her system, but there was no evidence of SA. And while Dr. Palma couldn't say exactly how long the attack lasted, he confirmed that the injuries were consistent with a sustained, violent struggle.

So while all this is going on, Yoshawn's family was waiting desperately for any news, and the investigators carefully matched her description with the recent reports of the body that was found. And there was no doubt. The dead woman on the side of the road was 16-year-old Yoshaun, missing from her family's home in Newport Ritchie. All the details matched perfectly from the report

filed just a day before. So deputies had to drive to her house with the burden of delivering the news that no family wants to hear. When that knock came on the door, that whole atmosphere inside was instantly still. It was cold. It was eerie. And before anyone said a word, Tara said she already knew. Every parent's nightmare stood in front of her, dressed in a uniform, speaking gently,

as if they could possibly cushion the blow of what they were going to say. But no gentle words could dull their pain. Her daughter was gone. Her daughter had been murdered, left abandoned in a lonely, wooded area just might be. from her home. In just 24 hours, Yoshaun had gone from a teenager just seeking independence to a victim of unimaginable brutality, left alone in this darkness waiting for someone to find her.

When tragedy strikes, there's one question everyone once answered. Who did this and why?