Timesha Carswell was a 21-year-old Bethune-Cookman University student from Inkster, Michigan, studying music and hoping to become an opera singer when she was murdered on September 17, 2015. She and a 19-year-old roommate, Diona McDonald, were both shot in the head at point-blank range in their apartment at the Carolina Club Apartments in Daytona Beach. A third roommate, Micah Parham, was critically injured with multiple gunshot wounds to the face and head.

The suspect was a housemate, York Zed Bodden, who had been living with the victims. The women had been trying to evict Bodden and had enlisted a male friend to help. Bodden fled after the shootings, was later arrested in North Miami and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault, but he was found dead in his jail cell by suicide hours after his arrest and the investigation was closed. Timesha’s family described her as fearless and determined, devoted to her studies and music.