Family mourning after woman strangled to death in Antioch, boyfriend identified as suspect
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Law enforcement across Tennessee and Kentucky are looking for a man after his girlfriend was found dead in his Antioch apartment last weekend.
On Friday, March 13, officials said Kentucky State Police found 26-year-old Kierra Timmons’ red Dodge Charger abandoned on an Interstate 24 bridge over the Cumberland River with the engine running, the door open, and the hazard flashers on.
“La Vergne police came knocking on my door at 9:30, telling me they had found her car abandoned and couldn’t find her, and this was in Kentucky, so I tried to reach her, [but I] couldn’t get her,” Kierra’s aunt, Stacy Dotson, said.
Dotson was notified by the police last weekend that her niece was missing, raising concerns. According to Dotson, Kierra had no family or connections in Kentucky.
“I had to get in touch with her best friend, and her best friend happened to have her location, and that’s how we found her at his apartment,” Dotson explained.
After Kierra’s loved ones alerted the Metro Nashville Police Department, officers joined two of her friends for a welfare check and found Kierra dead in 37-year-old Darrion Young’s apartment along Brittany Park Drive on Saturday, March 14. Officials ruled her cause of death as strangulation.
“She had talked about him to me,” Dotson said, referring to Kierra’s boyfriend, Young. “I disapproved because of certain things he would do… I told her it wasn’t healthy.”
Authorities said Young’s license was found inside Kierra’s abandoned car. He was reportedly last seen in Nashville on Friday, hours before the Dodge Charger was located in Kentucky.
“I know he has tattoos on his face, so he shouldn’t be too hard to recognize,” she stated.
Kierra’s sister, Kalee Timmons, met Young and even opened her home to him.
“She was just looking for love, and that guy would treat her good at some points and then he would accuse her of cheating, and it was just a bad situation… He seemed like he had good intentions because he was like advising her to get back in school, and he would help her financially,” Kalee said.
Kalee knew her sister’s concerns, but she did not know how bad things really were behind closed doors.
“I just don’t understand why he just decided just to take her life,” Kalee said. “I just can’t fathom it in my own mind. Like, it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up.”
Kierra’s family hopes to one day understand what led up to her death, but for now, they will continue to hope and pray for closure and justice.
“I just feel like Kierra deserves justice,” Dotson told News 2. “She didn’t deserve to have her life taken. She was working really hard to become a good person. I mean, she was going to school; she had two jobs. She just didn’t deserve this at all, and she deserves justice, so if you know where he is, I feel like you should call in and report him.”
MNPD Homicide Unit detectives and KSP are asking the public to look out for Young, who is now named in a criminal homicide warrant for Kierra’s murder. However, officials said they have not ruled out the possibility that Young may have jumped into the Cumberland River.
If you see Young or have any information regarding his whereabouts, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463.
