HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A neighborhood splash pad was among her favorite places to play with her three kids, but Bethany Mefford’s boys, all under the age of 7, will now have only memories.
"Bethany lived for her kids," her sister, Dani Gray, said. "Everything that she did was for them."
Members of Mefford’s grief-stricken family agreed to speak a day after her shooting death mainly to humanize the woman who meant so much to so many.
"The world lost an angel yesterday," her father, Doug Gray, said. "I can’t express that enough."
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Mefford was sleeping when a stray bullet went through her bedroom wall around 2:30 Wednesday morning.
A neighbor allegedly fired up to 15 times at suspected car burglars in the parking lot of their apartment complex but ended up killing the beloved mother and partner.
"I personally looked through the bullet hole and saw the outside light," longtime boyfriend Ricardo Lung said.
Lung was also the father of two of Mefford’s sons. He and the youngest were actually in bed with her but only realized what happened when the alarm went off.
"She went out peacefully," Lung said. "She had her eyes closed and was sleeping normal."
Not normally is how the family will move on, at least initially.
"And I don’t know how, how we’re going to go on without her," Dani said. "I’ve never experienced life without her and don’t know how I’m going to."
"But we will,” Doug said.
Especially, they told us, for the three boys who lost their mother just days before Mother's Day.
Darius Lewis, 28, has been charged with manslaughter in connection with Mefford’s death. His bond was set at $75,000.