Mother of 32-year-old murdered in Charlotte holds hope justice will prevail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Sunday afternoon, the body of Ahylea Willard will be laid to rest in her hometown of Asheboro, N.C., while Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police continue to track down her alleged killer.

The 32-year-old was shot to death in a grassy area of an apartment complex along Snow Lane in east Charlotte Sunday morning.

A group of people found her at the complex and contacted 911.

Her jewelry and her Mercedes-Benz with the license plate number – TJV-4843 had been stolen; police believe by her alleged killer.

“She was love. She loved everybody; she helped everybody. She was loved,” explained Mary McMaster, her mother.

McMaster, who also lives in Randolph County, said she discovered the news of her daughter’s death as she left church Sunday morning, October 23.

The sermon that morning was from Isaiah 65:22.

She had spoken with her daughter Saturday night, a two-minute conversation, because she simply felt the pull to do so.

“I just felt this urge to call her. I called her,” Mary said. “‘Baby girl, what you doing?’ She said, ‘I’m out eating.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to hold you. I just want you to know that I love you, and I want you to be safe. I wish it would’ve stayed on longer.'”

Ahylea left her home in Asheboro around 6:30 p.m. Saturday to meet a friend for dinner in Charlotte.

She spoke with her mother at 9:00 p.m. and was dead before sunrise.

Mary failed to understand why someone took her daughter away from her in a “senseless act of gun violence” while she had the whole world ahead of her.

Mary told Queen City News, “God don’t make no mistakes. And I asked him to hide me in that secret place, so my heart wouldn’t harden towards anybody. Even for the person that did this to my daughter.”

The young woman has been described as being outgoing, the party’s life, someone who strived to make a name for herself while she saw every part of the world she could.

Her mother said that she’s been comforted by prayers by her faith and has slowly come to terms with the belief that there is still hope for the soul of the person who killed her daughter.

“I’m going to have to stand in that courtroom one day and tell him I’m sorry,” she said. “I forgive him for what he did to my daughter. I forgive him because he has a soul.”

CMPD has not captured her daughter’s killer, but Mary did speak with authorities on Friday and said that the information they told her gives her hope that justice will soon come for her daughter.