Elizabeth Lightfoot, a 22-year-old hairdresser from Denton, Texas, was found dead in the driving seat of her torched car following a girls’ night out with other stylists.
Police believes Elizabeth Lightfoot was murdered, but are trying to determine exactly how as her body had been too burned to immediately tell.
Dallas firefighters discovered Elizabeth Lightfoot charred remains at around 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning after putting out a blaze engulfing the silver Sedan, which was parked nose-first in a small ravine beside a strip shopping centre in the north of the city.
Dallas Police Sergeant Warren Mitchell said:
“The fire at the scene made it impossible to determine the cause of death.”
“At this time, we’re waiting on answers from the medical examiner’s office.”
Elizabeth Lightfoot had recently started a job at Salon Republic in Addison, having worked at Salon D just three miles for the last two years.
Arden Keshishian, her boss at Salon D said she had been out to a restaurant on Thursday evening with some female colleagues from her former hairdressers the night of her death.
“They went to a restaurant down the street from here, which they normally do,” he told NBC 5 News.
“It wasn’t anything crazy – they left at 12, and everyone made it home but her.”
“It’s a shame, it’s a waste, a life cut so short,”Arden Keshishian told Fox News.
“She was very outgoing, very talented stylist, she was an angel. I just can’t believe somebody would do that.”
The group had been eating at Farmers Branch restaurant Yourway Burgers and left at around midnight.
Elizabeth Lightfoot, who studied at Toni and Guy Hairdressing Academy, was not seen again until her car was found burning in the 16000 block of Preston Road, less than a mile from Salon Republic.
Police are speaking to the manager of Yourway Burgers and her friends in a bid to retrace the steps she took that night and have analysed surveillance footage from the restaurant. There are no CCTV cameras at the scene of her death.
“It was nothing out of the ordinary from what I’ve found out,” Arden Keshishian told Fox News.
“Everything was just the same. I don’t know if she saw anybody there, we’re just puzzled.
“She wasn’t stupid, she wouldn’t have been uncareful.”
According to her Facebook page, Elizabeth Lightfoot has a boyfriend, Tuan “RudeBoy” Le, and pictures posted on the site show a fun-loving young woman with a flair for style.
“She had everything going for her,”Arden Keshishian told NBC 5 News.
“I don’t know why this happened. It’s horrible.
“It would be really hard to imagine some random person. I would look at people she knows, the people closest to her.”
Elizabeth Lightfoot’s mother, Barbara Lightfoot, issued this statement:
“Elizabeth was a kind, considerate and beautiful young woman who needs everyone’s help now. Everyone loved her.”
Barbara Lightfoot is urging anyone with information to call police.
