On June 30, 2022, 28-year-old Marquicha Thomas, a Black mother of eight, was shot and killed at her home in Cordova, Tennessee after a heated argument with her boyfriend, 33-year-old Byron Pipkin. Witnesses say the pair argued in the garage; Thomas ran into the front yard and Pipkin fatally shot her. A 10-year-old son witnessed the shooting while hiding inside a car in the garage. Pipkin then dragged Thomas’s body back into the garage, took a 6-year-old child from the house and fled in a white Mercedes-Benz, later dropping the child off unharmed at a family acquaintance’s home.

Pipkin called 911 while driving, falsely claiming another man had shot Thomas and that he was pursuing that person. A tip led police to a South Memphis motel room on June 31, where Pipkin barricaded himself; after a three-hour standoff with a SWAT team he surrendered and was arrested. He was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Family members have spoken about warning signs of abuse in the relationship and their grief.

Did anyone in the Cordova area know Marquicha or her family and have information that could add detail to what happened that night?