On a tragic evening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a 33-year-old woman named Tangela Detiege lost her life in a violent encounter. On December 17, 2016, she was shot and killed at her home on Catalina Drive. The incident, which unfolded around 7 p.m., cut short the life of a woman known to be a school bus driver and caregiver who had also taken on the responsibility of raising her two nieces.
The man responsible for her death was identified as her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Thornton.
After fatally shooting Detiege, Thornton fled the scene. A search for him ended the following morning when his vehicle was discovered by LSU Police. He was found deceased inside his car on the levee at River Road near Ben Hur, having died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This devastating event was part of a tragic history of violence that had touched Tangela Detiege's family before. In 2002, her sister, Ashley Detiege, was murdered in a case that remains unsolved. Following her sister's death and the subsequent suicide of her sister's boyfriend, Tangela and Matthew Thornton had assumed the care of Ashley's two daughters. The murder-suicide in 2016 added another layer of tragedy to the family's story.
