In the early morning of May 12, 2023, the body of 14-year-old Mariyah Ezell was found unconscious on a road in Ridgeville, South Carolina, and pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body. The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office opened a homicide investigation after a driver discovered her.

Investigators say Mariyah and the suspects were known to one another and that there had been previous incidents among them. Two days after the discovery, four people were arrested and charged with murder: 18-year-old Drayton Tarvarus Smalls of Summerville, 19-year-old Sabin Alexander Buck of North Charleston, and two female teenagers aged 16 and 17. The 17-year-old, Bailey Maria Taylor, was charged as an adult. Authorities described the killing as a concerted effort by those charged.

What information might help clarify the sequence of events on May 12 or the nature of the prior incidents involving Mariyah and the suspects?