In spring 2021 a welfare check at a home on Lowry Row in York, South Carolina, led police to the body of 35-year-old Thomas Terry Hardin. Hardin, who was Black, identified as a woman and used both male and female pronouns, had been shot and killed. The York Police Department opened a homicide investigation after finding the scene.

Investigators focused on a suspect with a prior violent history and a past romantic connection to Hardin. Law enforcement identified 26-year-old Tyler Terry as the primary suspect; Hardin had reportedly provided Terry a place to live previously and had asked him to leave months before the killing. Terry was said to have sent threatening messages to Hardin in the time before the shooting.

Tyler Terry and a suspected accomplice, Adrienne Simpson, became the subjects of a multi-state manhunt and were later linked to a violent crime spree that included other homicides and shootings. Simpson was identified as the driver of the getaway car the night Hardin was killed; both were taken into custody and charged in connection with the series of violent crimes, including Hardin’s murder.

Did anyone in York know Thomas Hardin or see him in the weeks before he was killed?