MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A family is looking for answers after a missing loved one was found dead at a Southwest Memphis motel.
The Memphis Police Department said on January 2, officers discovered the body of a woman at the Star Lite Inn on South Third Street, and the case is being investigated as a homicide.
Relatives have identified the victim as 38-year-old Angelica Taylor and said detectives told them she had been stabbed to death.
Taylor’s cousin De’Asmen Cobb said family members did not find out about her death until January 4, the same day officers also told them Taylor was alive and well.
“Police allegedly did a welfare check and said, “Oh, we just talked to a woman named Angelica, and she said she was fine. She will call you guys,” Cobb said.
Cobb said they began looking for Taylor at the Star Lite Inn after a person known to her cousin began posting cryptic messages on his Facebook page about the motel, and that’s when they learned she was dead.
“We sent a family friend to the hotel with a picture of her, and she said, hey, have you seen this woman? And the guy working the front desk said, ” I’m not going to talk to you; I’m going to talk to the police only,” Cobb said. “She called the police over there, and the police said oh yeah, we were over here two days ago with this woman. We found her body in that room and pointed to the room, and the room was 205.”
Cobb said Taylor, a mother of two teenagers, had been living at a rooming house in the Whitehaven area, and there was no way police could have talked to her at her home.
“How did you talk to her on Saturday the fourth if she passed on January 2? Either they lied about doing the wellness check, or the person who said they were Angelica was not, and they did not verify with ID,” Cobb said. “I just think it’s odd to me.”
WREG asked MPD if officers had made a welfare check but had not heard back from anyone. Police have not released a cause of death or any suspect information.
Cobb said the last time they heard from Taylor was on January 2, as she was headed to work. She said they are now planning Taylor’s funeral and have no idea what is going on with the investigation.
“No one has been arrested,” said Cobb. “We don’t know anything.”
Cobb said someone was active on Taylor’s Facebook page days after she was killed. Cobb said she knows Memphis police are busy but needs to know what happened to her cousin.