Taniko Roxanne Belt, 46, was fatally shot in Roanoke, Virginia, on May 2, 2021. Police responded to reports of shots fired near the Cove apartment complex around 11:30 p.m., and shortly afterward found Belt unresponsive in a car that had crashed into a median on Peters Creek Road after striking a power pole. She was pronounced dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. Belt was born August 14, 1974, and was identified as a mother.

Investigators determined the shooting began at the apartment complex and that Belt and 35-year-old Todd Emanuel Manns had recently been in a romantic relationship. Manns was arrested on May 7, 2021, and charged in connection with the killing. Prosecutors presented eyewitness testimony placing Manns at the complex immediately after shots were heard, a handgun from his vehicle ballistically linked to the fatal bullets, DNA under Belt’s fingernails that did not exclude Manns, and cellphone records putting him nearby and showing attempts to contact Belt just before the shooting. A jury found Manns guilty of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of murder.

Did anyone in the Roanoke area know Taniko Belt or see her around the Cove apartments that night?