Melinda Searight, a 42-year-old Black woman, was killed in her own home in a Birmingham suburb on the morning of April 22, 2016. Her three teenage daughters were nearby getting ready for school when the eldest called their grandmother, Doris Doss, around 6:30 a.m., reporting that their mother was bleeding from the head. The daughters witnessed an assault by Melinda’s boyfriend, Anthony Lanier Kelly.

Officers from Irondale responded to the 911 call and found Searight unresponsive on her bedroom floor; she was pronounced dead at the scene. Though early accounts mentioned a martial-arts-like steel ball as a possible weapon, authorities later determined she died from a gunshot wound to the head inflicted with a small handgun. Kelly, then 36, turned himself in later that day and was charged with murder. The couple had dated in 2010 and recently restarted their relationship; Kelly was not living with Searight.

Anyone who knew Melinda, her family, or who has information about that morning is asked to come forward.