A Pennsylvania woman has been charged in connection with the killing of a pregnant mother, whose body was discovered in the woods near Philadelphia last week – as police are hunting for the victim’s boyfriend who is suspected of fatally shooting her.
On Monday, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Justin Smith, 23, the missing boyfriend of 21-year-old Dianna Brice.
Two days earlier, police arrested 21-year-old Tylydiah Garnett, of North Philadelphia, on charges of arson, conspiracy, and two counts of abuse of a corpse.
Tylydiah Garnett, 21 (left), has been charged with arson, conspiracy, and two counts of abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of Dianna Brice, 21 (right)
A warrant was issued on Monday for the arrest of Brice’s boyfriend, Justin Smith, 23, who is suspected of shooting and killing her
Officials said Garnett was seen on surveillance video helping dispose of Brice’s body.
Brice was four month pregnant with her and Smith’s child, a son, at the time of her death. She also has a four-year-old son.
Smith’s car was found on fire at 59th and Florence streets in Southwest Philadelphia on the evening of Brice’s disappearance on March 30.
Less than a week later, on April 5, police found Brice’s lifeless body in a wooded lot in Southwest Philadelphia, less than a mile away from Smith’s burnt-out 2018 Ford Fusion.
Brice was four months pregnant with her second child, a boy, when she vanished on March 30
Brice’s body was found in this wooded area in south Philadelphia on Monday night, just under a week after she went missing
An autopsy performed last week found that Brice died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide.
‘It’s just tragic. It speaks to the senseless violence that occurs every day out there,” Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said. ‘And here’s a mother of a 4-year-old child and was expecting her second child, she was four months pregnant, and that child will never see his mother again and her family will never see her daughter again. It’s tragic.’
Police said they believe Smith shot and killed his pregnant girlfriend inside his car after getting into an argument with her.
Brice’s mother, Betty Cellini, said her daughter on seemed upset before Smith picked her up from a laundromat on the day she had gone missing.
Cellini also told WPVI-TV that when she spoke to Smith, he told her that Brice was so mad at him that she would not talk to him.
Police say they believe Smith shot Brice several times in the head, killing her, then disposed of her body with Garnett’s help and torched his car to destroy evidence
According to the police, after Smith shot Brice, he got in touch with Garnett, who was caught on video buying a container of gasoline and taking it to his garage.
Another camera near the garage was said to have captured Garnett and Smith loading a heavy object, believed to be Brice’s body, into the trunk of Smith’s car.
Garnett allegedly accompanied Smith to the 5800 block of Eastwich Avenue, where police say he dumped Brice’s body in a pile of debris.
Smith then used the gasoline purchased for him by Garnett to set his car on fire nearby.
Garnett was apprehended in Florida and was later returned to Pennsylvania, where she remains jailed.
Smith is still at large and police say they have no information about his whereabouts.
