Agnes Mae Yarlee, a 34-year-old Black woman, was killed on April 15, 2017, in her Johnston, Iowa, apartment during a domestic dispute with her live-in boyfriend, 39-year-old Abraham Roberts. The argument reportedly began over the cleanliness of the apartment and escalated in the presence of Yarlee’s family. Roberts shoved Yarlee’s 79-year-old mother to the ground, then retrieved a handgun. Yarlee’s eleven-year-old daughter witnessed Roberts shoot her mother multiple times while Yarlee sat on the couch with a five-month-old baby at her feet. Yarlee suffered wounds to the knee, chest, and head; the head wound was fatal.

Roberts fled the scene before police arrived; Yarlee’s body was found on the couch and the next day the handgun was recovered hidden under dirty clothes in a laundry hamper. Roberts was arrested the following day at the Canadian border in International Falls, Minnesota, returned to Iowa, convicted of first-degree murder by a Polk County jury in January 2018, and in March 2018 received a mandatory life sentence without parole and $150,000 in restitution. Agnes Yarlee is survived by four children, her mother, and multiple siblings.

Does anyone have memories of Agnes or information about her family that could add context to her life?