‘We just pray now’: Murder charges filed after woman’s death inside Martin City apartment

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Court documents have unveiled new information on what happened the night a woman was found dead in her apartment the day after Christmas.

The Kansas City Police Department was first dispatched to the Forest Ridge Villas apartment complex around 10:45 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2024.

According to a probable cause statement, the call came from a 16-year-old living in one of the apartments with her mother, 42-year-old Tiffany Chrisman, and her mother’s boyfriend, Eddie Covington, Jr.

Chrisman was a property manager at the apartment complex.

The teen told police she heard what sounded like a physical fight happening between her mother and Covington in one of the apartment’s rooms.

When she went back to check on her mother, Covington reportedly slammed the door shut and locked it. She heard her mother yell “Run” so she left the apartment and called her father, who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, for help.

The officers said they went to the apartment to check on Chrisman and Covington, but there was no answer. They were unable to enter the apartment because they could not prove that a crime had happened, so the teen was taken to her aunt’s house.

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A short time later, the Forest Ridge apartment manager notified police that one of the complex’s cars— a blue Mazda 5— was missing. The car had GPS tracking installed, so the manager gave the car’s location to police and they tracked it down near I-29 and NW 64th Street in Platte County, Missouri.

When the officers activated their emergency lights and sirens in an attempt to pull the car over, the driver, who police observed to be a Black male, refused to stop. He led a chase into North Kansas City where officers deployed stop sticks to try and end the pursuit, but they were unsuccessful and ultimately called the chase off.

The apartment manager soon told police the car was stopped at Russell Road and North Cherry Street in Clay County, Missouri. When officers went there, they said they found Covington hiding behind a dumpster about 90 feet from the stolen car. He was arrested and brought to KD’s metro patrol detention center on two charges.

A short time later, officers were notified that a friend of Chrisman’s had heard about the fight and was concerned about her friend’s safety due to the severity of the argument and her inability to get ahold of Chrisman. She went to the apartment around 3:49 a.m. and used a spare key to enter. When she saw what appeared to be large amounts of blood on the floor and walls, she called the police.

Officers returned to the apartment around 4:25 a.m. and entered to conduct a protective sweep. In the back bathroom of the apartment, they found Chrisman naked with a deep bite to the right side of her face and “severe laceration to her neck,” a report detailed. It later stated that her head was nearly severed.

She was declared dead at 4:48 a.m. on Dec. 26.

A person known to Covington told police that night he started getting calls from Covington shortly after midnight. Covington allegedly told the man he “did something crazy. When he allegedly itted to killing Chrisman, saying he “cut her” and “ruined his life,” the man tried to convince Covington to turn himself in.

When officers learned that Covington had been released from custody on a signature bond, they searched for him and took him back into custody on an investigative arrest for murder.

Covington has since been charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Jackson County. He also faces aggravated fleeing a stop/detention and tampering with a motor vehicle charges in Clay County. Both counties are working together in their investigation of the incident.

Covington is in Clay County custody with his next court appearance scheduled for Jan. 7 at 9 a.m.

The family of Tiffany Chrisman issued the following statement:

“We are at a heart breaking loss. In the recent days it’s been all we can do to just catch our breath. Tiffany was a beautiful person with a huge heart, an amazing smile, an infectious laugh, and the most giving soul. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to help a family member, a friend or even a stranger in need. She made a life and career out of property management because a sense of “giving someone a home” brought her so much joy. We will spend the rest of our life missing her!! We want to thank the Kansas City Police for their diligent work and extensive investigation into her death and especially for the endless effort to promptly take the man who did this to her into custody. We just pray now the justice system works in Tiffany’s favor.”

A GoFundMe has been set up in of Chrisman’s family. The link to donate can be found here.

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