Naman Shrestha
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Terror in Tennessee’ delves deep into the mysterious disappearance and murder of 20-year-old Maury-Ange Faith Martinez in 2023. As the police ended up hitting dead ends, the case went cold before her remains surfaced. The news got the entire community concerned and the victim’s family in a state of grief. The episode also features exclusive interviews with the loved ones of Maury-Ange and the officials linked to the case, providing the viewers with all the intricate details.
Maury-Ange Faith Martinez Texted Her Mother Before She Disappeared
On June 3, 2003, Anita Darling gave birth to Maury-Ange Faith Martinez in Georgia. Maury-Ange was one of her three daughters, the other two being Glory Darling and Gillian Lind. The four ladies of the family shared a close-knit bond and went on to become each other’s rocks. Nicknamed Marmalade, Maury-Ange completed her high school education at North Gwinnett High School. Her loved ones described her as a loving and compassionate person who had a passion for fashion and photography. She also loved making others laugh and “sing at the top of her lungs.” On her way back home from the Gwinnett County Jail on August 21, 2023, around 2:20 pm, Maury-Ange had been talking to her mother.
However, Anita became worried when her daughter did not make it home. Over the next week or so, she tried to look for Maury-Ange herself, contacting her friends and relatives to ask if they had seen the 20-year-old woman. When she had exhausted all the options, Anita reported her daughter missing on August 28, 2023. Soon after the investigation began, the authorities learned that her last known location was reportedly in Cobb County, near Powers Ferry Road. Anita told a local news station, “I know that something happened to her. Her sisters deserve to know and I deserve to know. Step up and say something.”
Maury-Ange’s Body Surfaced in Another State After Several Months
Even after the police began searching for the missing woman, they couldn’t find any significant leads, which led to the case getting cold. After several months of searching for Maury-Ange, the investigators finally found human skeletal remains in a rural area near a Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on January 5, 2024. Upon testing the remains in the lab, they confirmed that they belonged to Maury-Ange but couldn’t tell how long they had been there. Anita was informed of the same on Mother’s Day 2024. Soon after hearing the tragic news about her daughter, she expressed her grief during a conversation with WXIA. She said, “You are totally torn apart. Then, there is the heartbreak of realizing you lost your child. My kids are like my everything. It was horrible. It was huge.”
Anita told Fox Atlanta, “I want to know what happened to my daughter. It doesn’t cure the loss by any means, but it fills a hole that my brain doesn’t have to make up what happened for the rest of our lives.” She also passed a statement to Fox 5, “Someone has to know something. She was a noticeable girl. She was a gorgeous girl with an energetic, magnetic personality. If anybody has information, step up and say something.” From the time they discovered the remains, the detectives were working to find out more details about the case, including who the perpetrators might be and how she ended up in Tennessee. However, her cause of death was not declared, as there were no signs of trauma or any major injuries.
During an interview with the police, Anita Darling admitted that she was just a few minutes away from picking up her daughter, Maury-Ange, from near the county jail the day she vanished. However, she was stopped in her tracks by Maury-Ange, who told her that she had already caught a ride. According to Anita, her daughter had gotten in the car of a stranger and did not know him. She told Local News 3, “I had a conversation with her about it, it still seemed strange. I got off the phone with her and felt uneasy about it.” Soon after that, the 20-year-old woman stopped replying to her mother.
Allen Kerr, Sean Deschauzer and Jasmine Craig Reportedly Had a Hand in the Murder of Maury-Ange
After almost a year of Maury-Ange’s disappearance, the police found three individuals — Allen Kerr, aged 32, Sean Deshazer, aged 26, and Jasmine Craig, aged 27 — connected to the case. In July 2024, all three of them were arrested and charged with concealing a death, which is a felony in Georgia. Out of the three, Allen was already in custody for several unrelated charges, including the possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine, trafficking in illegal drugs, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, obscuring of a license plate, willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer, and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime. Even Sean Deshazer was in custody at the time he received charges for being involved in the murder of Maury-Ange.
He was being held behind bars for drug charges, including trafficking in illegal drugs, possession of cocaine and marijuana, and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime. Meanwhile, Jasmine had been arrested in Kansas on July 2 in another jurisdiction and was awaiting extradition. As the case had developed, Anita expressed her relief to WSB-TV, “I know just to get to the point they’re at right now was a lot of work and I’m so thankful for everything that they have done up to this point. I’m confident in the investigators that are on the case they’ve been amazing, I feel like they’ve worked very diligently.” Currently, all three accused are awaiting a trial date for their involvement in the disappearance and murder of 20-year-old Maury-Ange.
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