FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — Although Nikki McGregory never met Ashanti Markaila Billie, at 5 a.m. on Friday, dressed in black, she boarded a charter bus to travel to Maryland for the 19-year-old’s funeral.
McGregory, 44, of Chesapeake, was one of about two dozen people to travel together on the Agape Travel and Tours bus from Norfolk to Fort Washington, Md. to celebrate the life of Ashanti Billie, who went missing from a U.S. Navy Base on Sept. 18.
Although the Hampton Roads community helped Ashanti Billie’s parents, Meltony and Brandy, search for their daughter in the Norfolk neighborhood where her cellphone was eventually found, their worst fears were confirmed on Sept. 29 when her body was discovered in Charlotte, N.C. — more than 300 miles from where she was last seen alive.
“We’re showing support to [her family] and letting them know they aren’t alone,” McGregory said. “I think about how [Ashanti] must have felt in those final moments of her life … I just don’t understand.”
Before her body was discovered near a Charlotte church, Ashanti Billie was last seen entering Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story around 5 a.m. on Sept. 18. She was heading into work at a Blimpie sandwich shop where she was an assistant manager; however, she never arrived or showed up for her regularly scheduled culinary classes at the Art Institute of Virginia Beach.
Originally from Prince George’s County in Maryland, Ashanti Billie was new to the Southside. She recently moved to the Midtown at Town Center Apartments in Virginia Beach to attend culinary school and pursue her dreams of being a baker.
Hours after she disappeared, police found Ashanti Billie’s cellphone in a dumpster near the corner of Tallyho Terrace and Azalea Garden Road in Norfolk.
On Sept. 23, police found Ashanti Billie’s Mini Cooper in the Ocean View area of Norfolk. About a week after that, her body was positively identified in Charlotte by North Carolina officials. Despite being asked by the FBI to come to Charlotte and identify the body, Ashanti Billie’s parents did not leave Hampton Roads before they received the news that it was their daughter, the family’s publicist Kimberly Wimbish said.
“When she got the ultimate news, there was no break in this woman’s faith. While she cried out in travail … she took command of everything around her,” Norfolk activist Michael Muhammad said of Ashanti Billie’s mother, Brandy.
Muhammad was one of several Hampton Roads residents who supported and helped Ashanti Billie’s family search for her, and he was in the room with Brandy Billie when she got the news that her daughter was dead.
More than 100 people attended Ashanti Billie’s funeral at Ebenezer AME Church. The service included prayers, singing, dancing and eulogies from those who loved her.
“I want to thank God for lending us her, for allowing her to mold me into the person I am today,” Meltony Billie said of his daughter. “I loved her unconditionally. I would give my last breath for her — but she was only here for a short time.”
Ashanti Billie’s friends and family described her as bubbly, quirky and full of light. They said she touched many lives and left a lasting impression on everyone she met. They also emphasized that Ashanti Billie’s death wasn’t the end, but the beginning of their journey to address the issue of missing people on a worldwide scale.
“She was our baby,” Brandy Billie said of her 19-year-old daughter. “She wasn’t perfect, but she was really close to me.”
No one has been arrested in connection to Ashanti Billie’s disappearance and murder. The FBI is asking anyone with information on her death to contact the Norfolk field office at 757-455-0100 or [email protected]. If emailing, use the subject line “Ashanti Billie.”
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