Unsatisfactory pace of homicide investigation forces CMPD to reassign detective

A new detective has been assigned to investigate the death of a Charlotte high school senior whose body was found outside a house where she was staying in February 2017.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they found the body of 18-year-old Shania Hammonds outside of a home on Willow Gate Lane in west Charlotte on Feb. 9.

CMPD reassigned a detective to investigate the case after determining little progress was being made.

“Immediately I wasn’t satisfied with the answers I got from the detective as it relates to the status of the case," supervisor Susan Manassah said.

Manassah reviewed the case and demanded that the investigator initially handling the case be fired. The department decided against the detective's termination and reassigned him. He later resigned.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s going to result in it being solved. But I want to be able to sit across from Mrs. Hammonds and say that we’ve done everything," Manassah said.

A man who identified himself as Hammonds' stepfather said, "Shania was getting ready to graduate. She was a beautiful person. She was going to the service. She had a lot ahead of her. She hadn’t even lived her life yet."

Family and friends said Hammonds attended Mallard Creek High School.

"I would've liked to see the gas pedal pressed a little harder in the beginning," Manassah said of the case. "The gas pedal is through the floorboard right now."

Relatives said Hammond was staying with a friend's grandmother, who was out of town the days before her body was found. Family members said they had been trying to get in contact with Hammonds but she never responded.

“I want to be able to sleep at night knowing that we’ve done everything we can for Shania," Manassah said.

There is now a $10,000 reward in the case.

Her friends said she was in school the Tuesday before her body was found but they didn't see or hear from her the next day.

"They had been looking for her for the past day or so cause my sister was supposed to pick her up for school," said Stewart Cole, Jr. "My mom had came up here early this morning – it was kinda dark so she couldn’t really see so she was looking for her but she couldn’t find her so she came a little later like around 8 a.m. and was looking around. I guess she must have looked in the backyard near the shed, that’s where found Shania."

Police and the Medical Examiner's Office are trying to determine whether Hammonds' death was natural, accidental or suspicious.

Cole said he has questions.

"Just wanted to know what happened to her - who did it? What did it? Something. How she get back there. I know she didn’t walk back there – no socks."

Cole said Hammonds and his sister were friends for years. He remembers Hammonds as someone who was funny and energetic. "She’s like - I can’t find nobody like her. She’s an original girl there," he said.