KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ebone Harris looks at her three-month-old son knowing he'll never meet his grandmother.
"My mama's all I had. I just lost my grandpa last year. A few months ago I lost my child's father. Now losing my mama. I lost the three closest people I ever had in my life. It's just so hard to swallow that my mama is never coming back," Harris said.
Davida Carter, 38, was pulled from the Blue River near 2100 Manchester on Monday afternoon. She was reported missing that weekend, behavior her family said is unusual.
"I just want to know who did this to my cousin. I just can't see her doing this to herself," LaKenya Canady told 41 Action News.
Harris said Carter got a ride from two friends after leaving the food kitchen on 7th Street in KCK on August 18.
"She called my phone saying 'Ebone, Ebone, Ebone.' I don't know if something was going on at that time, but that's what she said, she didn't say nothing else but that. Then she texted 'I love you' after that," Harris recalled.
The 20-year-old can only wonder what happened after that.
Police told 41 Action News they are still waiting to find out the cause of death, and had no other information to release on Thursday.
"My mother's rings, they're not on her. Stuff is missing, so therefore, somebody did something to her and threw her in there. My mama's not trash at all," Harris said.
Her family said Carter was well-liked and well-known. They describe her as always smiling and affectionate. And so petite. That's how she got the nickname "Lady Bug."
"Lady Bug was a very caring person. She had a very big heart," Canady described. "Every time she would call me that's the first thing she'd say, cousin I love you."
Breaking into tears, Canady described growing up with Carter like they were sisters.
"That's the most hurtful thing to me. My cousin is not going to call me no more to say, 'I love you.'"
Harris urges anyone who saw Carter that day to come forward.
"I just want justice for my mama and figure out what really happened to her," Harris said.
The family set up a GoFundMe account to help with burial expenses.
