Vanessa Cross, 31, was shot to death in her home on Wallace Circle in Marion, South Carolina, on the evening of September 14, 2022. She was eight months pregnant; her unborn baby also died in the attack. Two young children, ages seven and four, were in the home at the time—her seven-year-old son ran to a neighbor for help and that action prompted the police response.

Marion Police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division treated the killings as targeted rather than random. Family and friends remembered Vanessa as a devoted mother; a planned baby shower became a mournful marker of the loss.

The investigation remains ongoing; anyone with information about what happened that night in Marion is asked to come forward.