Afrikka Hardy was 19 when she was found dead in a Motel 6 room in Hammond, Indiana, in the fall of 2014. She had recently moved to the Chicago area after finishing high school. On the evening of October 17, 2014, an associate who arranged a meeting at the motel grew alarmed after receiving nonsensical texts from Hardy’s phone; the associate and a male friend went to check on her and found her body in the bathtub. She had been strangled to death.

Phone records quickly pointed investigators to 43-year-old Darren Deon Vann, who was arrested the next day in possession of Hardy’s cell phone. Vann confessed to choking Hardy with his hands and then a cord, and to moving her body to the tub. He also admitted to multiple other killings and led police to abandoned houses in Gary, Indiana, where additional victims were recovered. Vann later pleaded guilty to the murders of Hardy and six other women and received seven concurrent life sentences without parole.

Are there readers who knew Afrikka, her movements after high school, or have information about her last day that could help complete the timeline?