Elegant Beayonka McGriff, a 24-year-old Black/African American female, died suddenly on October 13, 2007, after she was shot and found in Chester, Pennsylvania. Her obituary identified her as the daughter of George “Elisha” Word and the late Kelly McGriff-Lolley, and remembered her as a mother of three children, Kaveon, Kevin and Kellie. Her death became part of a larger, multi-jurisdictional homicide investigation that moved from Delaware into Chester and then into Philadelphia.
On the night of Saturday, October 13, 2007, McGriff and Jeanea S. Irvin were found fatally shot in a garbage-filled alley in Chester shortly before 9:30 p.m. The killings were described in reporting as execution-style. Irvin was connected to a rowhome on North Canon Drive in Wilmington, Delaware, and when Delaware police later went to that home, they found blood stains and signs of arson. Those discoveries suggested that the violence tied to the two women may have started before their bodies were found in Chester.
The investigation widened again when Maurice Goodman, a 35-year-old man from New Castle, Delaware, was found dead in the trunk of a rented 2008 Cadillac in South Philadelphia. His body was wrapped in a blanket, and authorities said he died from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. Police found the car after Goodman’s family reported him missing and the vehicle’s OnStar system helped lead investigators to its location. Authorities said they believed Goodman’s killing was connected to the deaths of McGriff and Irvin, though they did not publicly explain the full connection at the time because the investigation was ongoing.
A later Delaware County Daily Times report titled “Another Most Wanted is taken off the streets,” published on November 20, 2008, indicates that at least one person on a most-wanted list was apprehended, but the accessible online search results available for review did not provide enough reliable article text to confirm whether that arrest was directly tied to McGriff’s homicide, whether the person was a suspect in her killing, or what charges were filed. Because the full article text could not be verified from accessible online content, it cannot be treated as confirmed proof of an arrest in McGriff’s case.
Based on the online sources that could be verified, no confirmed named suspect, arrest, charge, trial, conviction or sentence could be established in connection with McGriff’s death. The public record available online describes her killing as part of a connected triple-homicide investigation involving Jeanea Irvin and Maurice Goodman, but it does not provide a confirmed resolution.
