JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville mother is renewing her call for answers exactly eight years after her daughter’s murder.
Tiphne Hollis, 16, was shot and killed inside of a car on March 20, 2010. Her killer has never been caught.
On Tuesday evening, Tiphne’s family and friends will hold a candlelight march at the site of the murder. Her mother, Shanda Whitaker-Ward, hopes it triggers emotion in the neighborhood, compelling someone to come forward with information.
“I just want them to be accountable for what they did,” Whitaker-Ward said. She said over the years, people have come forward to tell her those responsible are sorry for what they did, but no one ever turned themselves or someone else into authorities.
On the last night of her life, Tiphne, her younger sister, her cousins and a close friend were driving to a friend’s cookout after a day of shopping. A series of wrong turns led the girls to the corner of Calvin Street and Belfort Street in North Riverside.
Police say a group of young men, who had been involved in a dispute with someone in a similar car, were also near that intersection. Police have called Tiphne’s murder a case of mistaken identity.
When Whitaker-Ward got the call from her niece, who was in the car with Tiphne, she rushed first to the scene of the shooting and then to the hospital. But the bullet to Tiphne’s stomach was too much for her small frame.
Eight years haven’t faded Whitaker-Ward’s memory of seeing her baby girl’s body under a white sheet.
“I was trying to fix her hair and the detective, he said ‘no you can’t touch her,’” Whitaker-Ward said. “And I was like no you don’t understand. My daughter don’t like her hair to be messed up.”
Since the murder, Whitaker-Ward has renamed her day care and private school after Tiphne and painted it purple, Tiphne’s favorite color.
But time hasn’t brought answers about who stole Tiphne’s life and caused this mother’s heartache.
To learn more about Tiphne’s story and the foundation created in her memory, click here.
Anyone with information about Tiphne’s murder should contact JSO or CrimeStoppers to remain anonymous.