Family members are pushing for answers after a 17-year-old South Carolina teen was found dead days before her scheduled delivery date.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Maylashia Hogg, who vanished on February 6 or 7, was found dead less than half a mile from her Barnwell County home. Hogg was due to give birth to a girl on February 14, though she was going to be induced a day earlier.
According to News 12, the Barnwell County Coroner’s Office said police found Hogg’s body in a ditch.
Family members said Hogg was excited about her pregnancy and ready to welcome her baby into the world. She also had plans to become a nurse and to name the baby after her mother, who passed away several years ago.
“Every time I wake up in the morning, that’s the first thing I think of is Malaysia like dang she gone,” her aunt, Judy, said. “That just brought back so many memories. It opened up so many wounds, like losing her was like losing my sister over again. I was living through and is still living through her kids.”
Missing pregnant teen 17-year-old Malayshia Hogg was found dead in Barnwell on Sunday. Family says her baby was due February 14 @wachfox pic.twitter.com/4k46pYhEFT
— Keiyona Jordon (@JordonKeiyonaWF) February 19, 2024
Judy said that nothing appeared suspicious until Hogg failed to show up for her induction, which was unlike her since she was excited to become a mother.
“I was like, where’s Malaysia? But then when I talked to my dad, he said that someone had saw her and that she had lost her phone, that she would be home Monday because she knew that I had to take her to the doctor on Tuesday because she was going to be induced on Tuesday. After she didn’t show up Monday, I was like, ‘Dad, something’s wrong.'”
So far, police haven’t named any suspects and it’s unclear how she died. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday in Newberry.
“Whoever did it needs to be in jail,” her cousin Robert Payne told FOX 57. “She was only a child. A child with a child.”
Meanwhile, the Barnwell Police Department is investigating the case, along with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Barnwell County Coroner’s Office.
Anyone with information about the case should email SLED at tips@sled.sc.gov. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo via Facebook/The Broken Link Foundation]