02/04/17 — Coming Sunday: A'Tiya Maddox's murder remains unsolved

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Coming Sunday: A'Tiya Maddox's murder remains unsolved

By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 4, 2017 7:18 PM

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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO

A'Tiya TiJonna Maddox skipped to her work station after giving her mother and the general manager of Deacon Jones Nissan each a kiss on the cheek when she came into work Thursday, July 21.

"That particular day she came in and gave me a kiss and my general manager made a comment -- "I'm jealous, 'Tiya, I don't get a kiss?" And she laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek and I remember her skipping," said Maddox's mother, Tiffany. "It's like she skipped because she was so happy."

And, before she left work that night, around 8 p.m., she gave her mother another kiss and told her she was going to a friend's house.

It was the last time she would punch the clock at the car dealership.

It would also be the last time Mrs. Maddox ever spoke to her daughter.

"When I left for work that Friday morning, I left about 8:30 a.m., and she was in her bed asleep," Tiffany said. "I looked in and she was sleeping so good. She don't really snore, but she was really tired that morning and I remember she was laying on her back, and she was snoring, and I remember thinking, 'Wow, she's tired because she's snoring,' and I did not give her a kiss because she was sleeping so good I didn't want to wake her up."

Tiffany would never again see her daughter alive.

That afternoon, just after 1 p.m. on Friday, July 22, 2016, A'Tiya was shot and killed. She was 19.

Whoever murdered A'Tiya remains free.

Police have not yet made an arrest, have not yet named any suspects, have not yet received the tip that might lead to the evidence needed to close this unsolved homicide.

What's more, the specific circumstances around her untimely death remain shrouded in mystery.

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See Sunday's issue of the Goldsboro News-Argus for the full story, or check back tomorrow at www.newsargus.com