Family wants answers after Christina Nance, 29, found dead in Alabama police van
Nance's grieving relatives want Huntsville Police to release surveillance footage from their parking lot cameras.
The family of a young woman in Alabama, who was found dead one week ago in an old unused police van outside the Huntsville Police Department, is demanding answers.
Christina Nance’s grieving kin is asking the police department to release surveillance footage from the cameras mounted in the parking lot. Her sister, Latausha Nance, told WHNT that police officials told the family they weren’t sure how far back the camera’s captured footage went. Additionally, the news outlet said its reporters had not heard back from the department regarding the footage.
The Nance family also says they have not been told how long the 29-year-old woman’s body languished in the police department parking lot. On Monday, Latausha Nance said she last saw her sister two weeks before her body was discovered on Oct. 7. The sisters were in Latausha’s car.
“I just looked back at her,” the mourning sibling said, “and she was just smiling, and I said, ‘Christina, why are you smiling like that?’ and she just said, ‘Oh nothing, it’s nothing.’ That’s the last memory I have of my sister,”
A community protest is set for Friday in Huntsville, at the Madison County Jail.
In a GoFundMe.com post, Whitney Nance, another sister of Christina, wrote that her dead sibling “was very loved, a very good person, a funny and fun person to be around! If you knew her you would’ve love her spirit, she was very smart and loving.”
According to Newsweek, Whitney told a local outlet that Christina’s relatives “do not believe that our sister would just randomly walk to a van and climb in it. First of all, why wasn’t the van locked on police property?”
She also added that Christina had often visited the police department for help and had previously called family members to pick her up there. Police noted that she had been arrested for multiple nonviolent offenses over the past eight years.
Huntsville Police have said there is no sign of foul play in Christina Nance’s death; however, her family said they don’t know how she got into the van in the first place.
At a news conference Sunday, they made clear they won’t stop searching for the truth. The family successfully raised just over the $1,700 their online fundraiser sought.
“We really don’t know how our relative’s body was found inside a police van on police property, and we need some justice,” Frank Matthews, a cousin of the Nances, said Sunday. “We need some clarity, and Christina cannot speak for herself.”
An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of Christina’s death. Her family contends that, depending on the results, they may consider conducting an autopsy of their own.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!
