Ashley Nichole Blackmon was 24 and lived in the small Hamer community of Dillon County, South Carolina. A mother to daughter Darriyana La’Shye Rushing and a waitress at the Del Sol Restaurant, she was rooted in a close extended family that included parents Robert Lee Blackmon and Tonya Moore Blackmon. On the evening of Friday, November 23, 2018, deputies were called to Queen Court in the Tall Pines area after reports of shots fired. Officers found a woman inside a residence who had been shot and was already deceased; the county coroner later identified her as Ashley Blackmon and attributed her death to gunshot wounds.

That same night 28-year-old Jamel Rasun Dow of Hamer was arrested and charged with murder and taken to the Dillon County Detention Center. Prosecutors said Ashley had been shot six times, including once in the head. In October 2019 Dow pleaded guilty and received a 42-year prison sentence. Ashley’s funeral and burial took place in Dillon County, and her family held public memorials in the days after her death.

If anyone knew Ashley or has information about the events on Queen Court the evening she was killed, please share what you remember.