5 years later, mother holds onto hope for answers to her daughter’s mysterious death

CHARLOTTE — Shania Hammonds had big dreams of joining the military and becoming a veterinarian.

But she will never finish high school. Hammonds’ friend found her dead in a backyard on Willow Gate Lane in Charlotte in February 2017.

She was 18 years old when she died.

“I can’t believe time goes real fast,” said Hammonds’ mother, Frenetta Hammonds. “It just now seems like it happened yesterday, and I can’t seem to get the answers I’m looking for.”

[PAST COVERAGE: ‘I’m not going to stop fighting,’ says mother of teen found dead]

Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department started their investigation in 2017. The case is simply classified as a death investigation.

An autopsy report lists Shania’s cause of death as “undetermined” despite detectives finding evidence of a struggle in her room.

[PAST COVERAGE: Mother wants answers 1 year after teen’s death]

“They may not have nothing now, but I know I’ve seen enough things to know that something can become possible in the future,” Hammonds said.

That feeling of hope gets Hammonds through her most difficult days. She told Channel 9 on the fifth anniversary of her daughter’s death that she believes somebody knows something. She hopes one day to get a sense of closure.

“I just made a promise to my daughter that as long as I have breath in my body, I’m never going to give up the fight,” Hammonds said.

Channel 9 reached out to CMPD to find out where the investigation stands. We’re still waiting on that update.

(Watch the video below: Mother wants answers 1 year after teen’s death)

Mother wants answers 1 year after teen's death Mother wants answers 1 year after teen's death

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