Editor’s Note: This article discusses topics pertaining to domestic violence. To access the National Domestic Violence Hotline, call 1-800-799-7233 or text the word “BEGIN” to 88788. For the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, call 1-800-898-3234 or 601-981-9196.
JACKSON, Miss.—Tara Gandy and her 24-year-old daughter, Joslin Napier, used to talk almost every morning. She remembers her daughter as a fun-spirited, beautiful woman who loved to experiment with fashion and makeup.
Napier, who lived with sickle cell disease, was also a proud and dedicated mother to a young son. “Her favorite saying was, ‘See you later beautiful’ or ‘Hello, beautiful.’ She would always let you know you are beautiful,” Gandy, speaking to a crowd gathered outside the Mississippi Museum of Art on the night of Oct. 28, 2025, remembered.
Gandy said she always thought the disorder might be the most challenging thing her daughter would face. Ultimately, though, it was the unbridled obsession of an ex-boyfriend that became the greatest threat to her daughter’s life.
‘If I Can’t Have You, Nobody Can’
When Joslin Napier started dating Chance Jones, she had hoped she’d found an affectionate, invested partner, her mother Tara Gandy remembers. But the pair’s relationship, which lasted for about three years, was “on-and-off.”
After attempting to break off the relationship, Napier found herself trapped, suffering from stalking and intimidation—in the grip of a partner who could not let go, her mother said.
“That affection became interrogation and obsession. That presence became surveillance, and that investment became ownership. It was like, ‘If I can’t have you, nobody can,’” Gandy told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 28.
An average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports.
The percentage of women killed by a current or former partner was five times higher than men, a 2021 Bureau of Justice Statistics report showed.
MCADV advises that one warning sign to look out for is a repeated cycle of abuse wherein a victim might feel tension building within the relationship, followed by an incident of abuse and then a honeymoon phase where the abuser may apologize and exhibit affection. Other signs include isolating a partner from their support system, intimidation through physical harm, destroying property or displaying weapons to instill fear.
That abuse can have long-term consequences on a survivor’s mental health, a University of Glasgow study found. Many participants in that study reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
Joy Jones, executive director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 29 that one misconception is that it is easy to leave an abusive relationship.
“The offender may have told the victim, ‘I’m going to kill you if you leave me,’ so they choose to stay,” Jones said. “So the victim thinks they’re safer by staying and will choose to stay to protect themselves and possibly children if children are involved—or even other family members.”
Shades of Purple
Although Joslin Napier had taken action in the form of protective orders against her ex-boyfriend, Chance Jones, that did not stop him from trying to see her. On Oct. 4, 2022, he broke into her Waynesboro home and shot her, her mother said.
She later died at the hospital.
Napier’s photograph was one of several lined across the stage on the evening of Oct. 28, 2025, for the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s annual candlelight vigil for men, women and children who lost their lives due to domestic violence.
Shades of purple, a color commonly used in reference to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, illuminated the stage.
Gandy held a candle in remembrance of her daughter and all other victims of domestic violence who had their lives extinguished by a loved one. “She’s forever 24,” Gandy told the crowd.
Ashla Hudson, whose son Carlos Collins died at the hands of a former partner in 2024, also attended the vigil. Collins, a registered nurse, was returning home from work on the night he was killed.
Hudson told reporters her son was “a light” who would always make situations better and an exceptional uncle who could see the best in people.
After the ceremony, Gandy and Hudson—connected over similar tragedies—embraced.
‘The System Failed My Child’
A jury found Chance Jones guilty of capital murder in Joslin Napier’s 2022 shooting death and a judge subsequently sentenced him to life in prison that May.
Despite the verdict, Tara Gandy said she believes “the system failed” her daughter.
“Even though I got that verdict, it didn’t take the pain away. It didn’t take the sadness away. I feel that the system failed my daughter,” Gandy said on Oct. 28. “But I wanted accountability. And I got that accountability.”
Both Gandy and Ashla Hudson said they look forward to how the state’s new Domestic Violence Fatality Review team might protect others trying to escape their abusers.
The board will fall under the purview of the Department of Public Safety. Members will review fatal and near-fatal incidents of domestic violence to learn how to prevent similar incidents in the state.
The new law will also help provide the state better data on whom domestic violence affects and how, Joy Jones told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 29.
‘Don’t Judge Them’
Joslin Napier’s son—now 6 years old—is thriving, Tara Gandy said. But she resents that the only option she has now to spend time with her daughter is to visit her gravesite, which she and her family did on Nov. 11, what would have been Joslin’s 28th birthday, as those who loved Napier continue to grapple with the loss of the vibrant young woman they knew, Gandy said.
Today, she advocates against domestic violence with the Family Justice Center and Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi, talking about her daughter and the tragedy that took her life.
She hopes that telling her daughter’s story will make people less judgmental toward survivors who struggle to get away from their abusers.
“You always hear, ‘Well, why did she stay?’ But it’s a process,” Gandy said. “Don’t judge them. Don’t shame them. You can say, ‘You can leave,’ but it’s not as easy as you think.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, visit mcadv.org/shelters or call 601-981-9196 to learn more about resources available.