HAWTHORNE, Fla. – The family and friends of a Putnam County woman shot and killed on June 8, 2007, when she was 25 years old and pregnant are still waiting for answers to who took her life and why.
Tyvon Whitford was a corrections officer when someone entered her home on County Road 21A, east of Hawthorne.
Whitford died at a Gainesville hospital, and her unborn child also died. Her 5-year-old son who, was home at the time, was not harmed.
Eight years later with no arrest in the case, Whitford's mother and father say what happened to their daughter is still a mystery. They have no idea why anyone would want to hurt her.
"It's been rough, rough," said Dale Whitford, the victim's mother. "Some days it seems like it just happened yesterday ... like a piece of your soul has been ripped out of you."
Whitford's mother, who is raising her now 13-year-old grandson, said they are both still in pain.
"Some days I have to hold him like he's a little infant because of the pain he's going through. He just has his up and down days," she said.
If Whitford's mother could speak to her daughter, who she called also Coco, she knows what she would say.
"'I miss you Coco, and if I could trade places with you right now, I would trade places just so you could be here to raise your own son,'" she said. "I would actually trade places to she could raise her own son, so she gets to see all the milestones that he's having through life."
Investigators told the family that there was no sign of forced entry at the home and that nothing was missing from the house after the murder. Detectives did say that two 911 calls were made from the home the night of the crime.
Family members said one of those 911 calls came from the victim. Deputies said they're still investigating.
"Whoever it is that done this, believe me, we are not ever going to let this down," Dale Whitford said. "So if you done it, and you know you done it, you might as well come clean, because we are never giving up; we're not gonna never give up."
Anyone who has any information about the murder is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 888-277-TIPS.