Trinity Bostic appears in three photos (Hendersonville Police Department; Obituary; GoFundMe)
One teenager is dead and another is behind bars in Tennessee after a missing person case swiftly became a homicide prosecution.
Law enforcement say the formal investigatory shift was all but a foregone conclusion in the case of Trinity Bostic. The 17-year-old girl was missing for less than a week before her body was discovered along a state route near the woods by a state Department of Transportation worker picking up trash early last week.
The victim, remembered as kind, caring, and energetic in comments on her obituary, hailed from the small town of Lafayette. Her alleged killer, a 17-year-old boy, hails from the nearby, even smaller town of Westmoreland, police say. The suspect’s name has not been released.
Trinity was first reported missing as a runaway on the evening of June 29, according to the Macon County Sheriff’s Office. Interviews with family and friends ensued regarding her potential whereabouts.
“Trinity’s cell phone number was obtained, and immediately we began to trace her location which led to areas outside of Macon County,” Sheriff Joseph Wilburn wrote in a press release on Friday. “We notified agencies in Sumner County where we traced her location. Attempts to locate were unsuccessful.”
On July 3, Trinity’s body found near the wood line of State Route 386, near the intersection of Vietnam Veterans Boulevard and New Shackle Island Road in Hendersonville, a medium-sized city located roughly 50 miles southeast of Lafayette, police said.
On July 5, the human remains were identified as Trinity’s. That same day, Sgt. Nicholas Edwards said the death inquiry was “essentially a homicide investigation,” in comments to USA Today.
On July 6, the boy was arrested and charged with one count of murder in the first degree by the Hendersonville Police Department.
“In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation, no other details surrounding this incident will be released at this time,” the police department said in a twice-updated press release.
The victim’s cause of death has yet to be established, authorities say, and is pending an autopsy report.
The defendant is currently being detained in Sumner County.
Trinity would have been a senior at Macon County High School.
The school’s forthcoming graduating class rose to the occasion with a GoFundMe for the victim’s family.
“The class of 2025 is saddened at the passing of our classmate,” the online fundraiser reads. “We are planning on raising money to help and support her family during these times. Any amount donated will be given to Trinity’s family to help with expenses and is greatly appreciated.”
An older friend of the slain girl recently spoke with Nashville-based Fox affiliate WZTV about the loss.
“She was excited about graduating,” Kathy Duffer, who met Trinity while both worked on projects in their community, said. “She was a very smart girl. She was intelligent, a hard worker.”
Trinity, who worked at Walmart when she died, loved music and fashion. She often helped her father out at his auto garage, where the two worked on cars together, the TV station reports.
“She had a lot of energy,” her friend, Khloe Redfield, 14, told WZTV. “She would always be laughing on the phone, on FaceTime. She had the most amazing laugh you could ever imagine.”
One of Trinity’s family members, half-sister Tasha Calcote, criticized law enforcement for not sharing the victim’s image on social media sooner.
“It could have reached so many more (people) had it been put out immediately,” Calcote told the TV station.
Now, she’s left wondering what might have been.
“(Trinity) was talking to me about becoming a lawyer or studying criminal justice,” the girl’s sister said. “She was very, very loved, and she’s very missed, already. She would have had a bright future.”
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