Cold case: ‘Those three children will grow up without their mother’

Candance Prunty was 26 years old and the mother of three young sons living her life in Springfield. She was Patricia Beard's youngest child.

“She was such a joy, a sweet little girl,” said Patricia Beard, Candance’s mother. “She used to love white cheddar popcorn.”

She never got into any trouble growing up and her mother said she always worked hard to provide for her three boys.

» UNSOLVED MURDER: Who killed Candance Prunty?

“They had what they needed. She was a working young lady,” her mother said.

In the summer of 2015, Candance decided to end a relationship with a man she had been dating. Not long after that, her mother said someone vandalized her daughter’s car and threw a Molotov cocktail through the kitchen window of her home. So she decided to move in with her sister Tosha, at 1017 E. Mulberry St. Then came Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 21, 2015. Her mother stopped by the house but nobody answered the door. Later, Patricia became alarmed when she learned that her daughter had not picked up the boys from school. After getting the children, Beard headed to the house on Mulberry Street along with her sister and daughter Tosha. Tosha’s aunt was first to enter the house.

“She seen my sister laying on the kitchen floor,” said Tosha Beard. “I think she said call 9-1-1, and I started screaming her name to like wake her up.”

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“We get off at 4 o’clock so it was quitting time for us. I heard the call go out on the radio,” said Springfield police detective Ron Jordan. “This one seemed like a crime of passion.”

For Jordan, this case has become personal. There is a “person of interest” in the case but not enough evidence to file charges. However, not a day goes by that he does not think about Candance and her children.

“Those three children will grow up without their mother,” said Jordan. “I don’t think anyone should have to go through that.”

The victim’s oldest son Kalil, lives nearby and visits the family often. Recently, he found a way to keep his mother close.

“He got her picture, got popcorn that he had me buy at the store and said he was ready to watch a movie as if she was right there with him,” said Patricia Beard.

The two youngest sons live with their father in Georgia, but Beard said she still talks to them.

“I remember one day we were talking on the phone and said, ‘Is Mommy back yet?’ It’s difficult,” said Beard.

All she can say is that their mommy is in heaven and she will always love them.

If you have any information about the shooting death of Candance Prunty on Oct. 21, 2015, call detective Ron Jordan at the Springfield Police Division at 937-324-7680.