My girl was murdered in bed by twisted ex as her daughter, 4, slept beside her – his ‘karma’ threat haunts me

AS Crystal Sale talks to her granddaughter Milani about her mum Katlyn she treads carefully, wary of what she says.

That’s because devoted Katlyn was strangled in her bed by an obsessive ex while little Milani, then four, slept beside her.

Trenton Frye is serving a life sentence for the young mum’s death, and nearly one year into his jail term, Crystal is more determined than ever to keep her daughter’s memory alive. 

She says: “Milani still does things today which takes my breath away. 

“I talk about her Mummy all the time, but the other day she said she didn’t want to talk about her anymore. Instead she put her hands around her neck.

“I am scared I’m bringing up bad memories.”

Mum-of-one Katlyn, 28, met Frye, then 28, online in January 2022.

Crystal, 55, says: “Katlyn was excited and happy about the relationship. She wanted someone to share life with.

“He told us he had two jobs, his own car, he seemed to have his life together.

“However, a few months in, she deleted her social media and changed her phone number.

“She told me she was taking a break.

“While it didn’t scare me at the time, now I think he made her do that.”

Katlyn’s friends also noted a decline in her bubbly personality, with one later telling Crystal that the ‘light’ in Katlyn’s eyes had vanished and she didn’t go out as much.

The couple planned to move in together, in September 2022, but days beforehand, plans changed.

Crystal never learnt how Katlyn had found out the truth, but Frye, from North Carolina, had confessed he had been lying about everything, from his jobs to his car, and he couldn’t secure them an apartment like he’d promised.

Furious, Katlyn, a restaurant manager, had ended the relationship.

Instead she and Milani moved into a local apartment with friend Jacob Piercy.

Proud of her daughter’s achievements, Crystal Facetimed her every day.

In October 2022, the day before the attack, Katlyn came to pick up some belongings from Crystal’s house. 

“She was in such a hurry, I didn’t get to hug her goodbye as she usually would,” Crystal recalls.

“At 5.35am the next morning, I got a call from Jacob. Katlyn was unresponsive.”

Crystal rushed to Katlyn’s flat, where paramedics were working on her daughter.

Then she raced to the hospital and ran through the corridors until she found her cubicle.

Katlyn had been attacked and strangled.

She says: “I didn’t know who would want to hurt Katlyn.”

For 36 hours, Crystal and family sat beside Katlyn, holding her hand and trying to keep her warm.

Crystal says: “I kept telling her I was sorry. All I wanted to do was protect my child.

“It was the worst thing I will ever go through.

“We are not meant to bury our children.”

At 10.50am on Saturday, October 8th 2022, Katlyn was pronounced brain dead.

Generous even in death, she donated her kidneys and pancreas and meanwhile, police turned their attention to her roommate, Jacob.

But Katlyn’s relatives weren’t convinced of his guilt.

Their thoughts turned to Frye, but as they started looking at his social media, it began disappearing.

He lived hours away, but days earlier he had sent Katlyn’s aunt Sherry strange messages about doing building work on her floors, claiming he was in town.

Katlyn told him not to contact her family.

Crystal says: “One of the last things she said to him was he was a weirdo.

“He told her ‘karma was a b****’.”

As the family learned what happened to Katlyn, they grew more suspicious. 

The night she was attacked, Jacob had bought her and Milani dinner and they’d watched films late into the night.

At around midnight, they heard a loud noise, but when Jacob looked outside, he couldn’t see anything.

Shortly after, Katlyn went to bed next to her daughter and their dog Stormy.

In the early morning, Milani woke Jacob and told him something was wrong with her mum.

Jacob called emergency services and tried to resuscitate Katlyn before paramedics arrived.

Crystal says: “We later learnt Trenton had been stalking Katlyn for days, someone in her apartment complex had taken a photo of a strange man near the building and it was Trenton.

“He had looked up the layout of the apartment and even spoken to a psychic that night. 

“Trenton got access, before he attacked Katlyn, leaving injuries on the top of her head, and he strangled her with phone cables.”

Evidence revealed that Frye stayed nearby and watched from a distance as Katlyn was taken away by ambulance. 

Shortly after, he started looking up arrest warrants for himself.

Fleeing to North Carolina, he checked into a mental health facility, but eventually police arrested him.

Meanwhile, Katlyn was buried in a rose-gold casket.

Hundreds of mourners flocked to her funeral, telling her mum countless stories of Katlyn’s love and kindness.

In April 2025, Trenton Frye, 31, appeared at Bedford County Court, Virginia, charged with murder – and Crystal came face to face with her daughter’s killer.

She says: “It was hard, so was seeing pictures of her, but I wanted to know everything about my kids’ lives, death didn’t change that. 

“Trenton was able to address us. He said he was sorry for our loss, that he was feeling it too. I was furious. The jury saw through his lies.”

After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury found Frye guilty but it did little to comfort Crystal.

He was sentenced to life in prison in August 2025.

Crystal adds: “Nobody won. I don’t have Katlyn back. It makes nothing better.

“But knowing he’s not able to hurt another woman, he has to stay there and think about what he did, is good.

“Thinking of my daughter’s pain and terror was excruciating.”

Now the grieving mum, from Forest, Virginia, is determined to spread Katlyn’s story, to encourage other women to leave controlling relationships.

She has turned to social media, with millions watching her TikTok videos. 

She says: “I can’t thank people enough for listening to me. Every chance I get, I want them to know Katlyn’s story.

“If I can save just one woman, I know she’d be proud of what we are doing.”

Crystal and her sister Sherry now share the care of Milani, determined to raise her as a strong woman, like her mother.

After Katlyn’s death, Crystal found she’d written “I am loved”, in her journal.

She says: “Katlyn lived more in her 28 years alive than most people do in their lifetime. 

“At least she knew she was loved. Katlyn was all about love.”