LaJoya McCoy, 31, was the mother of two children, whom she loved very much. She was also an entrepreneur who opened her own boutique after obtaining her master's degree from California State University. She was also employed with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. So it was very strange when friends and family said that this busy woman just disappeared from her apartment around June 10, 2016.

Five days later though the Monrovia, California woman's badly decomposed body was found in her car, according to the LA Times.

Police said she had been strangled with a rope.

Investigators have never determined whether she was killed in her apartment or somewhere else, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Victor Lewandowski. 

"There was an event in her apartment," he told the LA Times, "but we can't tell if she died during the event or later in her car." 

McCoy's fcharged with murder in connection with her death. 

Jose Roberto Turner, 47,  McCoy's former boyfriend and the father of her two children, was arrested August 27 and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty on September 16,  Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the L.A. County district attorney's office, said in a written release obtained by BlackGirlTragic.com,.

Turner is a filmmaker. We found this tidbit about him written in Crowncitynews.com:

"[Turner’s] a great story teller and he asked my husband to help him shoot and edit a thriller in 2012 called “The Transition” about a man who can travel through various dimensions to bring back a hidden stash of money.  It was very well done."

Friends gathered to remember McCoy days after her slaying. They said she was a wonderful mother, a "dreamer" with big plans.

"She was wonderful, young and full of life and had a whole life ahead of her," friend Alfred-Gentles told NBC Los. Angeles. "I know this person is going to get caught. And I wish the worst possible suffering on this person that can be done."

According to a GoFundMe page set up for McCoy:

"Lajoya left behind two young children, Savanna (5) and James (9). They were her world,  and she worked hard for their future.  She enrolled them in dance and piano lessons, sports. She invested so much time and love into making sure they had the best upbringing,  despite being a single mother."