Woman Murdered at a Slumber Party
Death Ruled an Accident Sparks Celebrity Driven Movement for Justice
On November 3rd, 2018, Tamla Horsford went to a friend’s forty-fifth birthday party. The next morning, she was found dead outside, facedown on the grass. Initially, this was ruled as an accident, but many suspect foul play.
Confusion Sets In
Horsford arrived late to the party because she had made a breakfast casserole for her family for the next morning, as she and some others were planning on sleeping over at their friend's house. Unfortunately, the confusion surrounding this investigation begins here. There were twelve people total at the party, eight women, a live-in aunt, two men (a boyfriend and husband who decided to stay), and a husband who dropped off and picked up his wife.
Some of the guests say that Horsford was the last person to arrive at the party at 8:30 pm. However, this is untrue as Paula Seals was the last person to get to the friend’s house at 10:00 pm according to two of the guest’s interviews.
The friends had all initially met through their kid’s youth football league, but some of the women at the party said that they had never met Horsford before, that they had known of her, but had never actually met her until that night, yet they were all said to have been friends. Horsford was also the only Black person at the party.
The women watched the football game upstairs, while the men were in the basement. Later on in the night, the men came upstairs and they all started playing card games. Throughout the night, everyone was drinking, but Horsford was the only one smoking cigarettes and marijuana. Horsford was a habitual smoker and the party guests said she had gone outside several times to smoke during the night, but one of the guests, Sarah Cockerham said she had never seen her go outside to smoke, before adding that she hadn’t really been paying attention.
Something else interesting is that none of the other guests could name what anyone else was drinking, with the exception of Horsford. Horsford had come with a bottle of tequila which she had gotten from Mexico as a gift for Jeanne Myers, the host of the party and whose house the party was at. Everyone remembered what she was drinking and had similar answers when questioned. However, it is important to remember that all of the guests confirmed that although Horsford was drinking, she did not seem drunk. They were adamant that at the most, she was buzzed, but that she wasn’t slurring her words or stumbling whatsoever.
Pictures taken during the party also show that Horsford was not visibly drunk, and appeared to be having a good time. She talked excitedly about how her daughter was pregnant and how she was going to be a grandmother soon.
What Happened That Night?
By 11:30 pm a lot of the guests who were not sleeping over had left. Another guest at the party, Stacy Smith, said that Tamla wanted to go home, but they wouldn’t allow her to leave because she was drinking. However, others were allowed to leave and she didn’t appear to be intoxicated.
People who were sleeping over were mostly upstairs by 1:30 am, but Horsford was not. Sarah Fuller was said to be the last person to see Horsford alive at 1:45 am while in the kitchen. Fuller says that Horsford was eating gumbo and said that she planned to smoke one more cigarette before going to bed for the night. Fuller’s husband picked her up, and the door alarm showed the door opening at 1:47 am.
The door alarm opened and closed several times between this time and 1:57 am, at which point the door was left open for the remainder of the night. It is also shown that the garage door opens and closes several times around 1:40 am. No one ever explains why the garage door was opened. The front door opens again at 4:30 am, 7:45 am, and 8:30 am, presumably as guests left in the morning. Macy Hardin was the one who said she left after four in the morning, causing one to wonder, why not just stay over at that point?
The Next Morning
According to Madeline Lombardi, Myer’s live-in aunt, she woke up and got out of bed around 8:45 am and went downstairs to make a cup of coffee. The story once again gets convoluted here. Lombardi says that she saw Horsford’s body through the kitchen window and went outside immediately. Horsford was weaning her pajamas from the night before. She said a prayer over Horsford, before going back inside to get her niece.
This contradicts what Jennifer Morell said happened. Morell reportedly woke up around 7:45 am and was downstairs by 8:00 am and saw Lombardi in the kitchen acting weird. Later on, Morell changed her story to match the time with what Lombardi had originally said.
After alerting Myers, she and her boyfriend who had stayed at the party, Jose Barrera, went outside to Horsford’s body. Barerra said that he first went up to the balcony, where he saw an unlit cigarette and a lighter, before going downstairs.
At 8:59 am, the police were called, but Myer’s voice on the recorded phone call did not sound very concerned for her supposed friend who was dead. She and Baraera said that she wasn’t moving. They also said that she was facedown in the grass and that both of her arms were straight by her side. No one attempted CPR on her. Also on the phone call, Myers says that Horsford must have fallen from the balcony, which presumably caused her death.
When the police arrived, her right arm was next to her body, while her left was bent at her elbow. Perhaps someone checked her vitals and moved her arms? But Barrera refuted that saying he never checked her pulse.
A Botched Investigation
The police ran with the theory that she had a fatal fall, that she probably went out onto the balcony to smoke and fell over. This was supported by Barrera’s story that there was an unlit cigarette and lighter on the balcony, and with the autopsy that was performed, finding that Horsford was extremely intoxicated.
However, this information only brought up more questions. How could Horsford have been that drunk when all of the guests said she didn’t appear to be? Why did Barrera check the balcony before running down to check on Horsford? It was a cold night, so why didn’t Horsford have a coat on when she went outside? Why was an autopsy done when they are not mandatory except for instances in which the cause of death can’t be explained reasonably?
There were also problems with the autopsy itself, as there was no fingernail or sexual assault check on the body, and there were no pictures of her body at the crime scene. The police didn’t even fingerprint any evidence and didn’t test the alcohol she was drinking for illicit substances. Plus there is the mystery as to why there was crime scene tape in the living room inside the house. In fact, the crime scene wasn’t preserved at all.
Was it even possible for her to die from an eighteen-foot fall? At first, the injuries on her body were said to have matched the probability that she fell. However, there were marks on her body that seem to be defensive wounds which could have meant that there was an altercation before her death before she was possibly positioned outside like that. A closer look at the autopsy showed that her injuries didn’t in fact match her supposed fall. On top of all of that, the party guests weren’t interviewed right away. The last one happened over two weeks after Horsford’s death.
When the news of the story went public, a lot came to light about the botched investigation, but in February of 2019, the case was closed and her death was ruled an accident.
This upset Horsford’s family as they felt that the police did not take the case seriously, and suspected that it was because she was the only Black person present at the party. It’s also worth noting that the only person who was asked if they pushed Horsford off the balcony was Barrera, who happens to be Hispanic.
Social Media Steps In
One of Horsford’s friends started a change.org petition to get justice for the case, and when celebrities like Gabrielle Union and Kim Kardashian shared it on their social media platforms, it got nationwide attention.
In addition to that, the family hired a lawyer, Ralph Fernandez, who immediately started poking holes in the investigation.
The case was reopened by the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigations), but they came to the same conclusion, that Horsford’s death was a tragic accident. Many still suspect that Horsford was murdered, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it was anything other than an accident.