Deashia Gilkey, also reported as Deashia Adolphus-Young, was found dead February 4, 2022, after firefighters responding to a vehicle fire on Detroit’s east side near Young Street and Chalmers Street discovered two bodies inside a burned-out car. Both victims were described as burned beyond recognition, and police immediately treated the scene as a homicide investigation.

Investigators tied the killings to an earlier shooting that evening in Farmington Hills, where a man said four masked suspects attempted to rob him at the Fairmont Park Apartments near 9 Mile Road and Drake Road; he was shot when he refused to comply, and the group fled in a silver Ford Fusion with rear-end damage and dark tinted windows. Police said Gilkey had been involved in that incident alongside her cousin Jeremy Taylor, and that she became anxious afterward and wanted to report what had happened. Authorities say Gilkey and her girlfriend were shot at a different location, placed in a vehicle, transported to the Young Street address, and the car set ablaze.

License plate reader data, ShotSpotter records, witness statements and information from a family member were used in the investigation. Detectives located Jeremy Taylor in Lexington, Kentucky, gathered evidence and interviewed him there before he was returned to Michigan; police described the case as closed with Taylor identified as the suspect.

Did anyone in the Detroit or Farmington Hills area see a silver Ford Fusion with rear-end damage on February 4, 2022?