On January 8, a 16-year-old California teen’s body was discovered on the side of a busy Los Angeles highway. Now, the victim’s family and community activists have called out state and local authorities to create a reward to find the young girl’s killer or killers.
KABC reported that Tioni Theus was found dead on January 8, along the 110 on-ramp. The teen girl had been shot in the neck. Her family and community leaders are now asking the police to give Tioni’s death the same regard as the 24-year-old white UCLA grad student, Brianna Kupfer, who was murdered as she worked in an upscale California furniture store earlier this month.
On January 23, Paul Koretz, a Los Angeles councilman from the Western District, proposed a bill to offer a $50,000 reward in Kupfer’s case, saying, “When the news of Brianna’s death in my district reached me, I immediately pledged $50,000 from City funds for the capture and conviction of her killer, a pledge I have made before in other similar circumstances. This time, however, I was extremely moved when private and anonymous donors pledges brought the total award to well over $250,000.”
Tioni’s family is pleading with the public to help find her killer.
“Whoever knows what happened needs to say something,” the victim’s cousin Nafeesah Kincy said. “It’s just as simple as that. She was a human being. She didn’t deserve this.”
Another cousin expressed that Tioni was a “vibrant young lady who was just cut from so much that was ahead of her.”
“We’re talking about a 16-year-old. We’re not talking about an adult. We’re talking about a 16-year-old child,” Lakeshia Barret said during a vigil. “She was thrown on the side of the freeway like trash, and she’s a child! She meant something to her family.”
California Highway Patrol Capt. Jeff Lofton urged potential witnesses to come forward, saying during a press conference, “If you find something during that time period at Manchester and the 110, call our investigators.”
The LA Times reported that human trafficking might be have played a role in her tragic demise. Her family disclosed that Tioni had been having a tough time mentally after her mother was left physically and mentally disabled following a horrible hit-and-run car crash.
Kincy expressed that Tioni had been lured into sex trafficking by a 20-something man she connected with on Instagram.
“We’re definitely not pretending that Tioni was an angel. She faced trauma,” the distraught woman said. “I want to humanize her. I don’t want her to be seen as a prostitute or a runaway or somebody that people feel like, ‘Oh, well, they live that lifestyle.’”
“Time and time again, missing and victimized Black women and girls are overlooked and lacked the appropriate media attention in comparison to their counterparts,” L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said.
On Wednesday, California Governor Newsom has committed to contributing $50,000 to the reward fund for Tioni. L.A. City Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a proposal to offer an additional $50,000 for tips leading to the arrest and prosecution of Tioni’s killer. The city council will vote on the motion next week.
The board of supervisors unanimously passed Mitchell’s motion for a $10,000 reward, bringing the potential reward total to $110,000.
If anyone has information regarding Tioni’s death, please call the California Highway Patrol at 323-644-9557.
