In another tragic case of a Black woman gone missing, there was a glimpse of hope after Birmingham police located her after just 24 hours of her vanishing. However, hope was lost when they found her with a fatal gunshot wound.
Gail Maddox said she left the house to pick up some family members from the Atlanta airport the morning of Feb. 25 when got a call from her daughter who received a disturbing message from her sibling, 20-year-old Mahogany Jaquise Jackson, per AL.com. Her daughter said Jackson told her she was being held hostage and sent her location. She distinctly told them not to try to contact her but to call the police.
From that moment, she went completely MIA.
The pin was located at Serenity Apartments in Powderly. However, the report says when police arrived to the scene, she was nowhere to be found. One woman who lived in the apartment community told authorities she saw Jackson leave the area around 2 a.m. However, Maddox told reporters that’s impossible because her last message was sent at a time stamp of 7:46 a.m.
Sunday evening, a missing persons alert went out for Jackson describing her as 5’3, 122 pounds wearing blonde hair, a black shirt and blue jeans.
By Monday, the police came across a devastating discovery.
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The Birmingham Police Department shared to Facebook on Monday that officers responded to a call at 2:19 a.m. local time about a body found on the side of the road at 17th Street Southwest and Laurel Avenue, suffering from an “apparent gunshot wound.”
The woman has since been identified as Mahogany Jackson of Jasper, according to a release from Sergeant LaQuitta Wade.
According to police, Birmingham Fire & Rescue pronounced Jackson dead at the scene after she was found “lying on the side of the road.” There is no suspect in custody, as of Monday morning.
Jackson was one of the 16 missing Black women in Alabama, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Community Information Center. A handful of them are labeled as “endangered” but one can only imagine how many of them had the chance to reach out to their family like Jackson and notify them of potential foul play.
Police have not yet identified a suspect in Jackson’s killing. However, her death is a reality for most families mourning their loved ones who have vanished and were found but found dead.