CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Loved ones of a 26-year-old murder victim are remembering her as a woman full of life and love, as Charlotte-Mecklenburg police search for her killer.
Officers said someone shot and killed Ketie Jones while she was walking home early Saturday morning in Plaza Midwood.
[ IMAGES: Woman shot to death in Plaza Midwood ]
Family and friends told Channel 9 that Jones worked at the Midwood Smokehouse, and that after her shift Friday night, went to a nearby bar with friends.
She made it about a half mile into her walk home when she was shot on The Plaza, near Central Avenue.
(Katherine Memory Jones)
Officers responded around 2:45 a.m. and found Jones lying in a driveway behind a real estate business. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Monday Channel 9 spoke to Jones' mother, Jevona Livingston, on the front step of the home where the 26-year-old had lived for the last four years.
"I'm here at her house so I can feel her," Livingston said. "I'm still looking for her and expect her to come around the corner."
Investigators have not made any arrests and are calling it a random murder -- and her mother is convinced of that.
"I don't believe for one second that it was someone she knew," Livingston said. "She never had an enemy."
Family and friends said Jones was full of life and and love. Her sister, Kasey Livingston, said Jones would want her death to bring togetherness and not fear to the Plaza Midwood community she loved.
"If we loved each other and helped each other the way she loved this community, she would be alive," said Casey.
Some friends have come by the area where Jones was killed to add to a growing memorial for her.
“Everyone is getting ready to put on something for her,” said friend James Walker. “We want her family to want for nothing.”
At least one bar in Plaza Midwood said they will host a fundraiser for Jones this week. Staff said the money will go to her family to help with her funeral services.
Those services have not yet been announced.
The Plaza Midwood community came together at Snug Harbor to celebrate Jones' life Tuesday evening. Several musicians took the stage throughout the night, with all proceeds going toward her family.
"The Plaza Midwood area has healed me every day with a new story, with a new exciting thing, or crazy thing that she did, because that was my Ketie," her mother said.
Livingston said those stories have shown her further the type of woman she raised at a time when words have escaped her.
"There are no words to explain Ketie. I have been trying to describe her and explain her to people. Ketie burst into the world, literally, and she never stopped," Livingston said.
And for a community that has already shown love for her daughter, she asks one more thing.
"As a mother, you want to know, you want to know, what happened in her last moment," she said. "I'm begging anybody to come out and just let us know anything, you never know what could be important."
Joe Conde stood over the collection of flowers at the memorial earlier in the day.
“What brings me here?” he said. “She was probably one of the best people I ever knew.”
“Yeah, it makes people worried about walking the streets around here,” Allen Clontz, who works at Snug Harbor, said.
Jones' family is planning a memorial party for her on Saturday at her Plaza Midwood home.
Reporter Alexa Ashwell found out that the majority of crimes reported in the neighborhood are larcenies or disturbing the peace.
Police have not released any other details surrounding the crime.
To learn more about Jones, click here.
Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:
- Wells Fargo loses Better Business Bureau accreditation
- Boy opens eyes for first time since separated from twin brother
- MEDIC: 6 students treated for injuries in east Charlotte school bus crash
- CMPD: Man killed after shots fired into north Charlotte home
- DNC bus dumps raw sewage in Georgia, calls it 'honest mistake'