Da’Ja Davis was 28 when she was found dead inside a vehicle on Shelley Street in Baton Rouge on the afternoon of December 1, 2022. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds; police said the initial investigation pointed to a domestic incident. Her mother raised the alarm after Da’Ja failed to pick up her son from daycare, which family described as out of character.

Authorities issued an Amber Alert that same day when Da’Ja’s six-month-old daughter was missing and attention turned to 29-year-old boyfriend Napoleon Crane. Investigators believed Crane shot and killed Davis, abducted the infant and fled the state. The child was recovered alive the next morning after a traffic stop on Interstate 77 in rural West Virginia. Crane died at the scene; early reports said troopers returned fire, but Baton Rouge police later indicated he appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The infant’s safe recovery ended the multi-state manhunt, but the motive for Da’Ja’s killing remains a central question for her family and investigators. Did anyone in the area know Da’Ja or have information about the events leading up to December 1, 2022?