A young woman reported missing Sunday after messaging her family for help has been found dead on a southwest Birmingham roadside, police and family said.
The discovery was made at 2:19 a.m. Monday when a passerby called Birmingham 911 to report a body on the side of the road at 17th Street S.W. and Laurel Avenue.
Birmingham police and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded.
Mahogany Jackson was pronounced dead on the scene from a gunshot wound.
Her mother, Gail Maddox, posted this on Facebook about 6:30 a.m. : “They killed my child.”
Sgt. LaQuitta Wade confirmed the victim’s identity and said the family had been notified.
The ordeal began early Sunday when family members say Jackson texted them. She said she was being held hostage, and to send police. She shared her location with them on her cell phone.
Maddox previously told AL.com she was on her way to pick up her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter from the airport in Atlanta when her other daughter called her and said she’d received a disturbing message from Jackson.
Maddox looked at her phone – it was 7:46 a.m. – and she, too, had missed calls through Facebook messenger, but Maddox was on the phone, so she didn’t receive the notification.
“She sent me a text message that said she was being held hostage and sent her location,’’ Maddox said. She told her mom not to call her but to call police.
Family members rushed to that location, as did Birmingham police.
Jackson was nowhere to be found at Serenity Apartments in Birmingham’s Powderly community when police and family members showed up there.
The resident of the apartment, a female Jackson knew, finally allowed them inside but they did not see Jackson.
That woman told police Jackson had been there, but had left at 2 a.m.
“I know that’s not true because she sent that message and her location at 7:46 a.m.,’’ Maddox said.
“Between then and now, I don’t know what happened,’’ she said.
Maddox said she feared something terrible had happened.
“I feel it in my stomach,’’ she said. “My daughter would never say call the police, but she was afraid and that’s why she asked us to.’’
A search for Jackson set for 9 a.m. was called off.
No arrests have been made.
Jackson is Birmingham’s 16th homicide this year. Of those, one has been ruled justifiable and therefore not deemed criminal.
In all of Jefferson County, there have been 21 homicides including the 16 in Birmingham.
Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide investigators at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
