Vigil held for murdered young mother

WINGATE — Family and friends of Alicia Sligh gathered in Wingate to remember the young mother Saturday night. Her body was found in Marshville last month. Her husband was arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Next week Sligh would have turned 35. Her family and friends came together to celebrate her life—a life cut incredibly short.

"She was just amazing, amazing," Alice Sligh, Alicia's sister, said.

Sligh's family gathered to honor her memory and to help her two kids, 12 and 14, celebrate her birthday.

"We miss her, but she's here in spirit," Renee Neely said.

On March 9 —the Sligh family found out that an unthinkable crime had happened. Sligh had been found on South White Street in Marshville slumped over the driver's seat of a car. She was dead, from a gunshot wound to the head. Later, family members would find out that the suspect in the case was her own husband—Reginald Allen.

"Tough [isn't] the word when somebody that you love, who you grew up with, when they leave you it's like a part of you is missing," Alice said. "Tough really isn't the word. There really isn't a word."

But family members have leaned on each other to help them get through the senseless tragedy. They don't want Sligh's death to be in vain. They want to help other women in similar situations.

"I just want to thank everybody—the news people, the detectives, the police for supporting our family and being there for us and doing their job," Alice said. "And that's really all I want to say."

Allen has a court date on Tuesday. He's facing first-degree murder among other charges.

WSOC