A year later, no closer to the truth
Family and friends of Merrillville teen still search for answers in her death
By all accounts, Tonya Gray was a typical young woman balancing school, hanging out with friends and family, extracurricular activities and work.
Heather Holder, Gray’s childhood best friend, said she was athletic and social growing up.
Melissa Gray, her mother, said Tonya always kept up with her older brothers growing up.
While she played softball at Merrillville High School, her teammates said she was a talented player who always encouraged her teammates and kept them focused, said Serena Roldan, one of her teammates.
Gray, 19, was fatally shot April 7, 2020 — two days after her birthday — and police are still investigating her death a year later, officials said. The family has offered up a $5,000 reward for any information that leads an arrest and conviction.
“It shouldn’t have happened.,” Melissa Gray said. “She should be here.”
Early life
Tonya Gray was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, on April 5, 2001. The family moved about 30 miles south to Greenfield, a small farming community in Central Illinois, where she grew up.
She had two older brothers, Doug and Nick, and a younger sister, Madison, said Melissa Gray. Donita Tuey, Melissa Gray’s sister, mostly raised Tonya while her mother was serving overseas in the U.S. Army, she said.
Tuey, who the family calls “Dea,” said Tonya was brave and sassy growing up.
Tuey recalled how Tonya, when she was younger, got lost at a
Walmart and Tuey, her two brothers and store employees were looking for her.
Finally, they found her, and the first thing Tonya said was: “Dea, you lost me.”
Tonya was very athletic growing up playing softball, track, basketball and volleyball, her family and friends said.
Holder recalled how her brother helped her and Tonya with softball drills, and said they would spend their time hanging out with friends or driving around and listening to music. Tonya was always there when Holder needed someone to talk to, she said.
“She was always there for me. She was more like a sister to me,” Holder said.
The move to Merrillville
In 2015, Tonya started high school at Crete-Monee High School in Crete, Illinois, which was located in a larger town compared to Greenfield, and she butted heads with the “mean girls” and stood up for those being bullied, Melissa Gray said.
“There she was a handful,” Melissa Gray said. “She saw something and she’d speak up.”
During her sophomore year, Tonya moved to Merrillville, about 275 miles away from Greenfield, and attended Merrillville High School. Tonya and her brother, Nick, moved to Merrillville to live with their mother, Melissa Gray said.
At Merrillville High School, Tonya played softball, and she mostly played shortstop, said Roldan, who was a pitcher on the team.
“That girl was so good because she’s played all her life,” Roldan said. “That was her sport. She’s played for such a long time and she really was determined.”
Paige Wood, one of Tonya’s teammates, said she remembers being in a bad mood after the team had a rough practice, and Tonya came up to her and started joking around.
“She was like ‘Are you seriously tired? You were sitting at school all day doing nothing.’ She was like, ‘Come on, you are like the best player out here you should be showing these girls up.’ It was just funny to hear her say that, and it really made me feel better,” Wood said.
Tonya was very friendly, Wood said, and was friends with everyone on the team and cheered them on when they were up to bat during games.
Roldan said Tonya was outspoken and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.
“If something was wrong, she was the type of person to be like, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ She was the type of friend that was always there for you. If you had her back, she 100% had yours,” Roldan said.
The last day of junior year, Roldan said she missed her bus to go home. She ran into Tonya, told her what happened, and Tonya sneaked Roldan onto her bus.
They hung out at Tonya’s house for about an hour, and then walked 25 minutes to Roldan’s house so she could be home before her mother got there. They baked a cake together before Roldan’s mother took Tonya home.
Roldan said that’s her favorite memory with Tonya because, looking back, the walk to her house was a bit dangerous considering they had to cross U.S. 30 to get there. But, in the moment, they had a fun time together, she said.
Tonya was a few credits short of graduating, due to switching high schools, so she was considering getting her G.E.D, her family and friends said. She really wanted to become a pediatrics nurse, Melissa Gray said.
Her family and friends said Tonya started hanging out with “the wrong crowd,” and said she “was making some bad decisions toward the end.”
Roldan, who last saw Tonya Gray in person in November 2019, said while the two were still friends, she “kept (Tonya) at a distance because of the people she hung around with.”
‘I just want closure’
At approximately 1:45 a.m. April 7, 2020, Merrillville officers responded to the area of 73rd Avenue and Bigger Street for a call of shots fired. The officers noticed a Nissan SUV parked on Bigger Street, and found Tonya “unresponsive and sustained multiple gunshot wounds,” according to police.
“Unfortunately (the case) has been kind of stagnant for a while,” said Merrillville Police Department Detective Aaron Ridgway. In the last year, officers have followed leads but most have led to dead ends, he said.
Tonya hung out with a “rough crowd,” but the stories of those that were with her the night she died aligned and did not present a suspect, Ridgway said. The case relies heavily on social media and interviewing people, and not everyone is willing to cooperate with police, he said.
But, Ridgway said he is hopeful that the $5,000 reward the family is offering will help get some answers.
“(The case) has been on my desk since it happened so it stays fresh,” Ridgway said. “I still feel there are people who want and will talk to us about this case.”
Melissa Gray said she’ll never forget the morning officials came to her door to tell her that her daughter had been killed.
“Everything they were saying, I heard it, but I kept thinking ‘Why aren’t I waking up?’ ” Melissa Gray said.
Roldan said she feels “frustrated and sad” because Tonya is dead but the person who killed her is walking around free. Roldan said she wishes “somebody would say something.”
Holder, her childhood best friend, agreed.
“I just want closure, just to know the person who did do it is off the street and can’t do it again,” Holder said.