Malaysia Boykin

Candra Alston and her three-year-old daughter were found dead in their apartment eight days ago.

Her family and friends buried them this afternoon. "I was shocked," said childhood school mate Latonya Entzminzer, "I was so shocked."

"Devastated!" exclaimed family friend Rikiyah Cox, "Very devastated."

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts says Candra and her three-year-old daughter, Malaysia Boykin, were murdered. "Murder" is the clinical term. The coroner expressed it another way. "I've been involved with death investigations for well over 30 years and handled thousands and thousands of cases, and this is one of the most horrific, brutal cases involving a child that I've seen," claimed Watts.

Police found Candra and Malaysia in their brook pine drive apartment last Sunday. The mother and daughter had been dead for two days. "Horrible enough for this child to have been murdered, but what was involved in it was extremely brutal," stated Watts.

Police and the coroner believe someone out there knows something that can help them. "Whatever information they have, however small they might think it is, they need to call and give that information to the police," said Watts.

But on this Saturday, family and friends think only of their losses. "I just got back in town and that was the first thing I heard, and it really took something out of me," expressed family friend Robert Gibson, "I know how the family's grieving tremendously."

"She was quiet sometimes," stated Entzminzer, "She didn't have a bad attitude. She always had a smile on her face, just a good girl."

If you have any information about this crime, you are asked to call Crimestoppers.

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