Post by Scumhunter on Jun 4, 2017 4:00:36 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: montgomeryadvertiser.com)
From wsfa.com:
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - It was a minor collision that quickly turned into a high-speed chase and ended in a shooting, leaving a Montgomery woman dead inside her car.
Jamie Lightsey, 34, was gunned down in a south Montgomery neighborhood as she desperately tried to get away from another driver following her.
The 2015 killing remains unsolved, but police and prosecutors have released new details in the investigation as efforts ramp up to crack the case.
On the night of April 1, 2015, Lightsey was found shot to death in her pick-up truck in the 2000 block of Argyle Road, not far off Woodley Road.
For her sister, Brandy Lane, it’s hard to revisit the area where Jamie lost her life, especially knowing that the killer, or killers, are still out there.
“I can’t come down this road. This is the place where my sister took her last breath,” Brandy said. “Jamie was very compassionate person, very loving, very caring. Anything you needed, she was there. She was my best friend. You could go to her and talk to her about anything.”
On the night she lost her life, Jamie was going to visit a friend. She stopped at the Red Zone liquor store on Woodley Road. There, she had a minor fender bender in the parking lot with another driver who got very mad.
“She pulled out, and she barely tapped an individual’s car. When she tapped the car, then it became an altercation. From what we’re hearing, a male told her to give him what she had, but my sister’s checks were direct deposited so she didn’t have anything to give,” her sister said.
Jamie happened to be on the phone with a friend who overheard the heated exchange.
“The friend overheard the people telling her that if she did not stay at the scene and wait for police that they would kill her,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey. “She stayed on the phone with her friend as she was trying to get away because she was scared for her life. That’s why she didn’t wait there. That’s what she told her friend, was that she was scared something was going to happen to her.”
Jamie’s friend declined to be interviewed but told police she heard a man and woman yelling over the phone. Terrified, Jamie tried to get away, but she was followed. She turned onto Argyle Road where things escalated.
“We don’t think she knew anyone here. We believe she was just truly trying to get away. This car followed her. This was a pretty high-speed chase at one point. According to witnesses, the other vehicle pulled up beside Jamie’s vehicle and fired one shot out of the passenger window, striking Jamie in the head,” the district attorney said.
Her car crashed into a fire hydrant a block away and also struck another vehicle that was parked on the street.
Residents in the neighborhood called 911 and reported hearing gunfire and spotting Jamie slumped over the wheel of her truck.
"Outside of our house, there was a shooting," one caller said in 911 audio.
"Can you send an ambulance? I believe someone is dead," another called stated.
The witnesses and Jamie herself said the car that was chasing after her was an older model, light colored Lincoln. It sped off after the shooting.
More than two years have passed, and the investigation has stalled.
“That night, I remember that she hugged me and told me she loved me, and I told her I loved her too. It’s just the kind of person she was,” said Jamie’s mother, Cindy Lane. “Somebody just took my child away from me! Over two years now and still no closure, nothing.”
Montgomery investigators say there was no surveillance footage from outside the liquor store and no one who saw the tense encounter unfold in the parking lot has come forward.
Physical evidence didn’t lead anywhere either.
The liquor store staff says they didn’t see anything and witnesses in the neighborhood couldn’t identify anyone.
"What’s the other vehicle, where’s the other vehicle," a dispatcher is heard asking in a newly released 911 call.
"I don’t know. They’ve gone down the street," the caller responded.
"How many were in that vehicle," the dispatcher inquired.
"I don’t know. I couldn’t tell," the caller stated.
Crime scene photos released by the District Attorney’s Office show there was some damage to Jamie’s truck, indicating there was some impact between her pick-up and the other vehicle.
Jamie had a bright future ahead of her. She graduated from the University of Alabama and was attending Liberty University online to become a lawyer. She worked for the state of Alabama with the Department of Human Resources.
“Our family has not been the same. Our lives have not been the same at all,” her sister said. “It has been hard. You wake up every morning, and I think of her. You go to bed and you think of her and in the in between time, you still don’t know what happened. We go to the cemetery on her birthday to visit her.”
“It’s hard enough knowing that their loved one has been murdered in a such a brutal fashion, but it’s even harder that they have to live with this every day knowing that justice hasn’t been served on the individual or individuals who are responsible for this crime," the district attorney said. “The family is suffering every single day hoping that this case can be solved and it needs to be solved
Now, the reward for information has been increased.
At a recent news conference on local cold case murders, Brandy and Cindy Lane stood with other victims' families to issue public pleas for details that could help develop new leads.
“You have destroyed families. You have done more damage than you could ever imagine,” Brandy said when she spoke at the podium.
An $11,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case. Reward money is coming from the governor’s office, the City of Montgomery and Central Alabama CrimeStoppers.
Jamie was murdered only 30 minutes after she left her mother’s house that night.
“I believe if someone would come forward in that neighborhood, we would have the ‘I saw, I heard, I know.’ Somebody had to have seen something,” her sister said.
“There are multiple people we know that saw what happened initially what happened that night and that could come forward with information,” Bailey said. “We’re asking anyone with information, whether it be at the liquor store or right here on Argyle Road, to come forward. It’s the right thing to do.”
Tipsters are asked to call MPD’s Detective Division at 334-625-2834.
To remain anonymous, call the Secret Witness Line at 334-262-4000 or CrimeStoppers at 215-STOP.
“Just please, if anybody knows anything whatsoever, the least little thing, please call and help us,” Jamie’s mother said.
“My sister deserves justice. My family deserves justice. We’re hoping that this will shed new light on her case and somebody will remember seeing something or somebody will at least come forward, especially with them raising the reward amount,” her sister stated. “They’ve had two more years with their family. They’ve had two more Christmases, Thanksgivings, birthdays. We don’t get that anymore.”
m.wsfa.com/wsfa/db_330846/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=jUFzxU5f
Thoughts?
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