‘I just keep praying, like this is the year:’ Columbia mother begs for answers 3 years after daughter’s unsolved murder
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A Columbia mother is pushing forward, pleading for answers, three years after her teenage daughter’s unsolved murder.
The Columbia Police Department said 19-year-old Trinity Sanders was senselessly gunned down in a drive-by shooting while staying at a home on Musgroves Mill Lane, near Caughman Road Elementary School.
Investigators said she was not the intended target.
“I just keep praying like this is the year that we’re going to get this case resolved,” LaTechia Thompson, Sanders’ mother, said. “It’s really hard on me. It’s really hard on my family.”
Thompson said holidays are especially difficult, and this year was the first time she celebrated the Fourth of July with family since her daughter’s passing.
Thompson said she is doing okay and leaning on friends and family for support.
“It’s like your life kind of stops until things are solved,” Thompson said.
Thompson called her daughter “her little twin,” and explained that she will not stop advocating for justice until there is an arrest and conviction.
“Her name speaks volumes, that she was already an angel when she was born,” she said. “I know she’s watching over us, because she’s our angel, and she’s making sure we’re good.”
Sanders was just coming into her own, Thompson said. She was nurturing, loving and had dreams of being a nurse.
Thompson said she was a good sister to her younger brother, and a friend to many.
“She’s a good person, she didn’t have any enemies to the point of somebody wanting to take her life,” she said.
Jackson Sheard, Captain at the Criminal Investigations Bureau at the Columbia Police Department said Sanders was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“What we know is a car drove by, fired multiple shots through the house and quickly drove away,” he said. “What we believe is that the intended target may have been someone in that house.”
Sheard said that a dispute at a Swansea nightclub earlier that evening may have led to the drive-by shooting.
Columbia police have conducted several interviews, including with people at the home on Musgroves Mill Lane. However, they still need more cooperation from the community.
Sheard is confident that the case will be solved for Sanders’ family.
“We have a dedicated team of investigators looking into this, and that’s our mission is to bring justice,” he said. “It’s just a little bit that we’re looking for to solve this puzzle.”
Investigators have reviewed security footage from the neighborhood, collected shell casings from the road, looked at cell phone evidence and have combed through social media.
Sheard said police have identified persons of interest, but no formal suspects.
Thompson felt that she must continue be her daughter’s voice.
“She’s just very special,” she said. “She was smart, always wanted to go – and that’s what makes it so hard to go to family events, because she was always that kid that wants to be around family and go to events. So, it just makes it a little hard just knowing that she’s not there.”
Thompson has started a foundation in Sanders’ honor to help teenage girls achieve their dreams.
It is called Pushing 4ward for Trinity, and aims to provide scholarships to Lower Richland High School students.
Anyone with information about what happened to Sanders is encouraged to reach out to Crimestoppers. That number is 1-888-CRIME-SC. Tips can be made anonymously.
Crimestoppers is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Sanders’ case.
Columbia police’s federal partner, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is offering a reward of up to $25,000 as well.
A tip can be called into the ATF at 1-888-ATF-TIPS (888-283-8477).
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