After one detective's failure, here's how CMPD is trying to solve teen girl's death

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers are working with renewed energy to solve a 2017 homicide case after the first detective assigned to investigate failed the victim and her family, CMPD Lt. Susan Manassah said Thursday.

The body of Shania Hammonds, an 18-year-old senior at Mallard Creek High School, was found behind an east Charlotte house in February 2017.

A year later, Manassah discovered then-Detective Corey Berman's lack of progress on the case. He was transferred and later resigned, she said.

Shania's mother, Frenetta Hammonds, said she often called Berman and couldn't get him to call her back.

"I felt like he had something, but he just didn't have enough," she said.

Manassah was promoted to lead CMPD's Violent Crime Unit, which includes homicides investigations, in February. When she asked Berman about Shania's case during a routine meeting on Feb. 20, she said she was immediately dissatisfied with his answers.

"(The case) was being worked, but I wanted it worked harder and I wanted it worked faster," she said. "And I knew that that person wasn't equipped to do that."

Manassah said moving detectives off cases is not common, but it does happen, and it's often because of a language barrier or personality conflict.

Investigators still have the names of people who might know something about the case, Manassah said, and the new detectives assigned to the case are interviewing them again. They have some theories about how she died, Manassah said, although the medical examiner initially said the cause and manner of her death were undetermined.

Shania was a senior in high school who wanted to join the military and go to veterinary school, her mother said. She was funny, outgoing and helpful, her mother said, especially when she took care of her two brothers.

Nearly eighteen months after her daughter's death, Frenetta Hammonds sounded hopeful about the investigation on Wednesday.

"It's gonna come out," she said. "I think these guys are going to get it out."

Anyone with information about Shania Hammonds should call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600. A $10,000 reward is available for relevant information, police said.