Mother of missing woman found dead in Midtown Charlotte says autopsy results aren’t adding up
CHARLOTTE, NC – The mother of a Greenville, South Carolina woman found dead in Charlotte tells WCCB something isn’t adding up with the autopsy results released in her daughter’s death. The tests results show she died from hypothermia.
Autopsy results Ta’Haley Payton died accidentally. Payton’s body was pulled from Little Sugar Creek back in December after loved ones reported her missing in November.
“I’m looking at pictures, thank God for that. We got video, so I can hear her laugh or her baby can hear her laugh,” Stephanie Crawford, Payton’s mother said.
Crawford says the autopsy results don’t show the full picture of what happened to her daughter and why.
“This should give the police officers more questions and make them want to do their job,” Crawford said.
The 22-year-old’s autopsy shows levels of rubbing alcohol and Valium at “non-lethal levels.” She was found wearing only a bra, her mother says those are signs of a struggle.
“Where are her clothes at? Where is her hair? She only had three strands of hair left in her head. What about the gash on her forehead? She was found naked with no clothing on,” Crawford said.
Payton was the mother of a newborn child. She had been in Charlotte for her birthday with the child’s father. Crawford says Payton got into a fight with the man who later texted Crawford with an eerie message to give to the couple’s baby girl. Workers at businesses in the midtown area told WCCB they remember seeing Payton in distress.
“How do my heart get healed from the hurt that my baby was stuck there and the law is not doing anything,” Crawford said. “Then they come up with this accidental death?”
Crawford believes what is done in the dark will eventually come to light.
“I’m not going to stop fighting until I get the answers because, I can’t rest until I have the answers,” Crawford said.
Crawford says she plans to keep conducting her own investigators searching for any clues or camera footage from the time span that could help answer the questions about what happened to Payton. Payton’s family plans to get another private autopsy. They are raising money through GoFundMe to pay for the procedure.
UPDATE:
CHARLOTTE, NC – An autopsy report shows Ta’haley Payton died from hypothermia.
The 22-year-old from Greenville, SC disappeared on November 20, 2024 after a visit to Charlotte with her boyfriend.
Her body was discovered in Pearl Street Park on December 9, 2024.
According to the autopsy, her body was mostly unclothed, in a streambed in a state of early decomposition.
The report also says there was no evidence of acute injury.
ORIGINAL STORY (POSTED 12/11/24):
CHARLOTTE, NC – A shocking discovery. The body of Ta’haley Payton was found in Pearl Street Park, located in a busy area of Midtown Charlotte.
A Crumbl employee asked we hide her identity. She tells WCCB Payton came into the midtown store the night it’s believed she went missing.
“She was sweating. She was like, kind of nervous and stuff, and her phone was dead,” said the employee.
She said Payton told employees she got into an argument with her boyfriend. Another employee let the 22-year-old from Greenville County, SC borrow her phone. The employee WCCB interviewed, believes Payton called her parents to pick her up.
“She would go to the mall. She would come back, and then she would go somewhere else and then come back, and then she’d go somewhere else and then come back. I think she left about 3 or 4 times,” the employee said of Payton coming in and out of the store.
That employee thought Payton eventually got a ride, but when she left work, she says she saw Payton sitting on this grass at this bank just down the street.
November 20th was the last time police say Payton was ever seen. Until Monday, when her body was found a half a mile from where police say she was last seen.
CMPD hasn’t released many details about this case other than they are treating this as a death investigation.
A GoFundMe was created to help the family with funeral expenses.
