CHARLOTTE — The mother of the 22-year-old woman who was found dead in Charlotte last week is expressing her pain.
Ta’haley Payton went missing last month. Family and friends who had been searching for her were devastated when her body was found on December 9.
“I’m having to put my baby to rest cause somebody took her away,” said Ta’haley’s mother Stephanie Crawford.
On November 20, Ta’haley and her boyfriend traveled to Charlotte from Greenville, South Carolina for her birthday.
But because the relationship had been rocky, Crawford told Ta’haley not to go.
“I begged her not to go. I begged my baby not to go with him. I begged her ... I begged Ta’haley not to go with him. She said she was ‘gonna be alright,’” Crawford explained.
The day her daughter disappeared Crawford said she got a call from Ta’haley saying she was at a pub in South End.
“She said ‘Momma, these people act like they are getting aggravated with me and I’m fixing to leave here,’” Crawford expressed.
That was the last time Crawford spoke to Ta’haley.
Now she is expressing her frustration with the police response to the situation as a whole.
“Because you didn’t care, they didn’t care. Ta’haley didn’t deserve what she got,” said Crawford.
Ta’haley’s body was found near Midtown in the waters of upper Little Creek. The homicide Unit with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has labeled the case a death investigation.
The department has yet to respond to the family’s criticism of how they handed the case. The investigation, however, remains ongoing.
VIDEO: Police find body of SC woman reported missing in Charlotte
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