Ashley Baker, who would have turned 27 on Tuesday (Feb. 4), came to Dayton roughly five months ago from Alabama to care for her mother, who has cancer.
Tonesha Doss, who said she came to the city with Baker, now finds herself consoling Baker's mother and looking for answers in her the slaying of the woman she calls her best friend.
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"It's been hard because we're not from here," Doss told News Center 7's Mike Campbell on Monday. "We're from Birmingham. We came up here together and now I gotta go bury her."
Doss can barely contain herself when asked to speak about Baker, who was found by her niece in a residence in the 900 block of Windsor Avenue the night of Jan. 24.
Dayton police have said they found Baker “with obvious gunshot injuries” and the evidence indicates someone shot the woman. What's not certain is whether she was killed at that address on Windsor, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
"It don't make sense," Doss said.
Doss said she believes Baker met and began dating a married man and the night she was killed, the man and his wife and some of their family members visited the house on Windsor.
Baker "hung with them," Doss said. "She trusted them and they took her life."
Dayton police will not confirm Doss's story, but homicide investigators told Campbell they have leads and information.
No arrest has been made as of Monday night.
Doss and some other friends of Baker's are hoping for an arrest -- or any new development in the case -- before they all return to Alabama this weekend to bury Baker.
If you have information about the Baker homicide, you are encouraged to contact the Dayton Police Department at 937-333-COPS. If you want to remain anonymous, you can call Miami Valley Crime Stoppers at 937-222-STOP.
