It was a cold case that captured national headlines: a woman accused of murdering, dismembering and dumping her girlfriend’s body nearly two decades ago and then stealing her identity.
The mother of the victim spoke exclusively with Channel 2’s Karyn Greer about her heartbreak and fight for justice.
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Sylvia Alston talked about her adopted daughter Nicole Alston, who disappeared at the age of 24.
“The last time I spoke to her, she said, ‘Mommy, I want to come home,’” the mother said. “She said, ‘This girl is fighting me. She’s beating me and I fought back.’”
Angel Marie Thompson has been charged with the murder, identity theft and concealment of the body of Nicole Alston.
Her remains was identified in 2024 after a DNA match was made using a sample from one of Nicole’s biological siblings on Ancestry.com.
The case took a significant turn when cold case investigator Clay Bryant connected the dismembered body found in a smoldering garbage bag in 2007 to Nicole Alston.
“She was still receiving money from the Social Security Administration, and she was getting Section 8 housing,” Bryant said.
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Sheryl McCollum, a crime scene investigator, described the case as “probably one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Sylvia Alston shared that her daughter had been in a relationship with Thompson, which began in New York before they moved to Georgia.
For 16 years, Sylvia Alston tracked what she thought were her daughter’s movements, from Palmetto to Sandy Springs, hoping to find her.
Bryant’s investigation revealed that Thompson had been living as Nicole Alston for over a decade, using her identity to steal more than $100,000.
The case faced jurisdictional challenges, as the body was found in one area while the suspected homicide occurred in another.
The arrest of Thompson brings a measure of closure to a case that has haunted Sylvia Alston for years.
“My daughter didn’t deserve that. No one deserved that,” Sylvia Alston said.
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