Tyliah Young was done with Tacoma.
She told her father last week she planned to tie up some loose ends and move her two daughters back home to Manhattan.
That was the last anybody heard from the 22-year-old aspiring nurse. Her frozen body was found Sunday in an alley in the 1200 block of South Ainsworth Avenue. Police said her death is suspicious because of the location of her body and blood discovered nearby.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has not determined a cause of death.
Young’s family and friends grappled for answers Tuesday and shared memories of her easygoing nature, her contagious laugh, the sparkling mischief in her brown eyes.
“She was a good, loving, sweet young woman,” said her aunt, Karen Palmer of New York. “She was outgoing, jovial. She laughed a lot and brushed things off where other people would have been upset.”
Young was raised in Manhattan with five siblings. She moved as a teenager to the Tacoma area with her mother before returning to the Big Apple. Two years ago, family members said, Young decided to move back to Tacoma because she missed her friends and wanted a change for her daughters, ages 5 and 7.
“She wanted to provide a better life for her children,” Palmer said.
Young hoped to be a nurse someday.
But times got too tough and Young decided to return to Manhattan to be closer to her close-knit family.
During a phone call with her father, she said she had to appear in court Jan. 9 to take care of a warrant and would then be on her way. Young never showed up for court. Her dad reported her missing two days later.
One of her sisters visiting from New York was the last to see Young, who reportedly came home the morning of Jan. 9 to drop something off and then dashed out of the house.
“She was supposed to be coming home,” said her mother, Karen Young. “Whoever did this was heartless. They have no idea how many lives they hurt. Now I’ll have to explain this to my grandchildren.”
Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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