Grieving family and friends honored Tonja Chadwick Sunday with a special celebration of life.
The 20-year-old and mother to a 4-year-old son, was missing for five days and eventually found dumped in a Southwest Baltimore park.
Her boyfriend, Marco Holmes, is charged with her murder.
Police say it was an argument that may have ultimately lead to her death. But Sunday was about focusing on the good Tonja brought to those around her.
"I cried so many tears of joy just thinking that everybody got to share what I already knew was special," Lakasha Chadwick, Tonja's mother, told ABC2.
"Right now, I'm feeling some kind of happiness. I'm looking around and I'm seeing everybody that I grew up with that knows my daughter," she said.
Chadwick went missing and was later found wrapped in bedding in Daisy Park on Feb. 2.
"I just knew that my daughter was a positive person I've always told her that death was certain in life so we always embraced death," her mother said.
Sunday was not about tears, but about celebrating.
"She's in heaven is smiling upon you her family loves her - she is deeply loved and deeply missed she will always have a place in all our hearts," her uncle Alvin Wallace said.
Tonja touched many lives--most importantly her son's. This celebration, an attempt to heal a community grieving.
"It makes me happy and it makes her son be able to adjust to what is happening a little bit more better," Chadwick said.
But it's Tonja's spirit that will keep those that loved her going.
"I didn't want it to happen I didn't want it to happen this way but I love my daughter. She left this earth with a smile that I will always remember," Chadwick said.
Holmes is charged with Chadwick's murder. He was assaulted in his jail cell Thursday. Police are investigating that incident.
