GASTONIA, NC – The manhunt continues for the driver who hit and killed a Gastonia woman, leaving her to die on the side of I-85. 28-year-old Tamesha Beam was struck and killed early Sunday morning. Police are looking for any information that could help them track down the driver.
“She had that big smile and she just loved live and she was just full of life,” says Beam’s Aunt Caren Phillips. “It’s just really hard to get unexpected news.”
Police say someone hit Beam on the exit 21 southbound ramp to I-85 at Cox Road Sunday morning and then left. According to investigators, Beam and her sister got out of the vehicle they were riding in after an argument around 4:30am. Beam’s sister walked home. That’s when the driver says they saw an unknown vehicle coming down the ramp and heard a noise, but didn’t go back to see what it was.
About an hour later, both the driver and Beam’s sister came back to find her body on the side of the road.
“It’s just very disrespectful for someone to be left and be found, you know, on the side of the road,” says Beam’s former Shelby High classmate Sabrina Giles.
Giles posted a message on Facebook Sunday, reaching out to former classmates. “We just wanted to send something, you know, a token, you know, of love to her family in their time of bereavement,” Giles says.
Giles says Beam seemed to be happy when she saw her at a recent reunion. “That’s the memories I have of her. She’s always smiling. She just loved being around people,” she says.
Meanwhile, Beam’s aunt says she is praying someone will come forward with more information.
“We trust God. He doesn’t make mistakes. We don’t know why but we trust God,” she says.
