On January 22, 2016, 33-year-old Edwina Thomas was shot and killed at the Sycamore Lakes apartment complex in Northeast Memphis. She was pregnant at the time and was with 34-year-old Eddie James Tate Jr. when both were fatally shot. Investigators believed the killings were tied to a robbery connected to a business Tate ran selling hair extensions; friends and family pointed to the value of the bundles, reportedly up to $250 each, as a possible motive.

Police arrested 18-year-old Shelby Isaac after witnesses said they saw her going through Tate’s pockets at the scene. Another 18-year-old, Victoria Seay, was arrested as the driver of the getaway car after a witness recorded the vehicle’s license plate. Seay told police she had seen another woman shoot Tate and Thomas and helped that woman escape.

Charges against Isaac were initially dropped in March 2016 for lack of probable cause but were later reinstated; she was indicted for the murders of Thomas, Tate, and Thomas’s unborn child and was convicted in November 2017. Seay pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in February 2018 and received probation.