Community grieves after couple found dead

Friends and family members are making sure light continues to shine on this couple, this young pair who glowed, whose enthusiasm and energy lit up classrooms and lives.

Nine days after an Asheville couple disappeared, their car found bloodied and with a gunshot hole in the passenger headrest, and a day after one woman's body was pulled from the French Broad River, the second woman's body was recovered.

Tatianna Diz, 20, was found around 10:30 a.m. Friday close to where the body of Alexandra King, 22, was found Thursday afternoon in the area near the train trestle on Emma Road in the River Arts District. Police said the bodies were found close to where the women's car was found pushed into a riverbank the morning of Oct. 28, but declined to be more specific.

Crews spent seven days searching the river from the New Belgium Brewery site all the way to Woodfin. Improved weather on Thursday meant multiple agencies were able to mobilize aid, focusing their search in the area from the Craven Street bridge north to the train trestle.

Divers and boats from the Asheville Fire Department and Henderson County Technical Rescue Team scoured the waters using a grid search. Sonar imaging technology, canines, and a state Highway Patrol helicopter also combed the area.

After finding King's body around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, crews continued searching until dark. They resumed searching Friday morning, and less than half an hour after boats entered the water, Diz's body was found around 10:30 a.m.

Both women were identified based on body markings and sent to Wake Forest for forensic autopsies, which will provide more positive identification, according to the Buncombe County medical examiner's office.

Friends and family are mourning a "beautiful" pair who studied at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and worked at Cracker Barrel.

"Tatianna was a beautiful person, inside and outside, very sweet," her grandmother Esperanza Diz said Friday afternoon.

"She's beautiful, she's beautiful," Esperanza Diz added before dissolving into sobs. "I have many things to say about her, but in this moment I can't talk."

Vannessa Diz, Tatianna's sister, also said Friday she was too anguished to speak and asked for time.

Jamie Arias, a close friend of Vannessa's who lived with the family in Leicester and has known Tatianna and Vannessa for 10 years, said Tatianna had become like a sister to her.

"She was just very loving and outgoing, very bright-spirited," Arias said Friday afternoon. "She would be there to pick me up and just be the vibrant person she is."

Like many other friends, Arias said the bond between Diz and King was pure. They brought out the best in each other, she said, and it was apparent how deeply they cared for each other.

"Honestly I've never seen two people more perfectly made for each other," Arias said.

Diz made organic and herbal products, actively pursued spirituality, and honed a talent as an artist, friends and family members said. She had been dating King, a competitive chess player, musician and Owen High homecoming queen, for about two years.

The women left their residence in Canterbury Heights Apartments in northwest Asheville on Oct. 27 to give Pierre Lamont Griffin II, 22, a ride to nearby Deaverview Apartments. Griffin has been charged with murder in a slaying the same night at Pisgah View Apartments, which occurred during an armed robbery, according to arrest warrants.

Police have said a shooting occurred "in or around" the Jetta but have declined to elaborate.

Griffin is being held without bond in the Buncombe County Detention Facility. He has been charged with felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony first-degree murder, and reckless driving and fleeing to elude arrest in connection with the slaying of Uhon Trumanne Johnson, 31.

Police said Friday the investigation is ongoing and continue to encourage anyone with information about the events of that night to come forward. Authorities said they couldn't release further information about the case until the medical examiner completes the autopsies.

A community of friends rallied their support Friday in online postings, as if, maybe, this agonizing mystery could be soothed with the love friends said King and Diz infused into the people they touched.

A friend of the King family, Jenn Garrett, said "there is a beautiful community of support." She started an online fundraising site to support both families.

In the description, she wrote, "That is all we can do in these helpless and senseless times, share love."

HOW TO HELP​

To donate to the families, visit http://bit.ly/1MgBh05.