Relatives remembered Tia Keith’s ambition and generosity after authorities arrested her former live-in boyfriend on murder and assault charges.
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Before Tia Vidon Keith became the victim at the center of a Hall County murder case, relatives knew her as an ambitious hairstylist who built a loyal clientele, valued her family and pursued a long-held goal of creating a salon business of her own.
Keith, 44, died July 16 after she was shot at the Subhanallah Food Mart near Gainesville, according to authorities and her funeral-home obituary. Investigators accuse her former live-in boyfriend, 45-year-old Antwane Sintell Thurmond, of shooting her first in her vehicle and then following her into the store when she tried to escape. Thurmond was arrested one week later at an Augusta motel. He is accused of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault under the Family Violence Act, with Hall County jail records later showing additional firearm and property-related charges.
In the days after the killing, Keith’s relatives worked to keep the public account of her life from being reduced to the violence captured by a convenience-store camera. Her cousin Charlotte Sosebee told WSB-TV that Keith had a plan for her future after high school and wanted to make her family proud. Relatives said she succeeded in building a career as a hairstylist and developed relationships with clients who became close to her. Her father, Victor Keith, described her as the light of his life. Family and friends also remembered her as glamorous, warm and generous.
Keith’s obituary fills in part of the life that preceded the police investigation. She was born Aug. 28, 1981, in Gainesville to Victor Donell Keith and Annie Pearl Smith Collins Austin. The funeral home said she moved to Crossett, Arkansas, when she was young and was raised there before eventually returning to Georgia. By adulthood, her family said, she had pursued the beauty-industry career she wanted. After her death, friends, relatives and clients gathered to honor that work and the relationships she formed rather than allowing her final minutes to define her entire public memory.
Those final minutes began during what investigators described as an ordinary stop at a neighborhood business. Hall County authorities said Keith arrived at the Subhanallah Food Mart at about 9:30 p.m. and went inside to buy items. When she returned to her vehicle, deputies say Thurmond was sitting in the passenger seat. Investigators have not publicly explained how long he had been there or how he arrived at the location. They allege that he fired multiple shots at Keith while both were inside the vehicle. Authorities have not announced a motive for the shooting.
Despite being wounded, Keith got out and went back into the store, investigators said. Authorities allege that Thurmond followed. The store owner told WSB-TV that surveillance footage showed Keith moving toward a bathroom before she fell. Investigators say Thurmond shot her again inside the business. A clerk called 911, while another customer was also present. Neither of those people was reported injured. Keith died at the store, according to the sheriff’s office. The public reports reviewed do not include an autopsy report or a detailed medical account of her injuries.
What followed was initially a search rather than a prosecution. Thurmond was not immediately in custody when investigators publicly identified him on July 19. Deputies warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous and released identifying information in an effort to locate him. Authorities recovered the vehicle they believed he had used after leaving the store and searched a Metro Atlanta residence associated with him. The sheriff’s office said evidence was recovered there, though officials did not publish a complete list of what investigators seized or describe how each item related to the homicide investigation.
The search widened during the next several days. The FBI joined Hall County authorities, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Community Supervision and Richmond County agencies also assisted. The manhunt ended July 23, when Richmond County officers found Thurmond alone in a room at a Motel 6 on Wrightsboro Road in Augusta. Officials said he was taken into custody without incident at about 4:10 p.m. Hall County investigators were in Augusta at the time of the arrest, and Thurmond was transported back to Gainesville later that night.
His return shifted attention toward the allegations that prosecutors may eventually have to prove in court. The initial public announcement named malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault under the Family Violence Act. Local reporting based on Hall County Jail records later listed criminal damage to property, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon among additional charges. The records also referenced a Superior Court arrest order. Publicly available reporting reviewed for this article does not provide the full charging instruments or explain the factual basis for every added count.
The relationship designation in the assault charge is one of the few publicly established pieces of background between Keith and Thurmond. Investigators have described Thurmond as Keith’s former live-in boyfriend, placing them within a relationship category covered by Georgia’s family-violence framework. Beyond that description, authorities have not released a detailed history of the couple, a date for their separation or an account of any events between them before the convenience-store shooting. No motive has been publicly announced, and the absence of one means the available record does not support speculation about what may have led to the encounter.
Keith’s family held memorial events after Thurmond was already in custody, creating a different public focus from the earlier manhunt. At Wimberly Funeral Home, relatives and friends spoke about her personality, appearance, work and determination. Her funeral was scheduled for St. John Baptist Church. The mourning unfolded alongside the criminal investigation, but the two processes serve different purposes: the court case will determine whether prosecutors can prove the charges against Thurmond, while Keith’s relatives have been trying to preserve a fuller account of the woman whose death produced those charges.
The timing of Keith’s death is also clearer than some later news references suggested. Her funeral-home record gives July 16, 2026, as the date she died, matching the Hall County account cited in multiple reports that placed the shooting on Thursday night. Some later coverage referred to July 17 while describing the event. The available obituary and the more detailed initial law-enforcement reporting support July 16 as the date of death. Keith was 44 and would have turned 45 on Aug. 28.
As of Aug. 24, the sources reviewed show Thurmond in Hall County custody and facing the homicide, assault, firearm and property allegations reflected in jail reporting. They do not identify a trial date, a resolved plea or a final determination of guilt. The criminal case therefore remains pending while Keith’s family continues to frame her legacy around the work, relationships and ambitions that existed long before the night authorities say she was killed.
Author note: Last updated August 24, 2026.