Manhunt continues for killer of Queens woman: 'I  think it was a stalker'

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) – Police in Queens are still on a manhunt for the killer of a 21-year-old woman shot dead in her own home.

It’s been more than a week since Deshanna Donavan, and the Police are still hunting for clues and a motive.

“She was a sweetheart of a girl,” sobbing family friend Patricia Suero told PIX11 News.

Friends, family members, and community leaders gathered on a corner in East Elmhurst to remember Dashanna Donovan.

Police say the masked man chased the 21-year-old woman into her home before shooting her to death.

“We are asking that the suspect turned himself in,” Hiram Monserrate, Democratic District Leader, said at the vigil. “If he needs help doing that with a lawyer or help in any way,  from this community, he will get it,” he added.

Frank Taylor, president of the Ditmars Boulevard  Block Association, added: “ I’m just this person was 21 years old. She had only lived a quarter of her life.”

The shooting happened Friday night, September 12, at 9:20 p.m. after the young woman had just gotten off work at McDonald’s.

Friends say she was sitting outside the home where she lived with her aunt, talking on the phone with a friend before the fatal encounter.

Family friends are still trying to figure out who the assailant is.

“They are always going to assume it’s a boyfriend or an ex-boyfriend,” Talea Wufka, a family friend, told PIX11 News. “I  think it was a stranger, a stalker. She worked at a fast food restaurant. You smile at people and they misinterpret,” she added.

Family friends said Donovan had just moved back to Queens three months ago after living with her father in South Carolina for a year.

The first batch of surveillance photos released by police shows the suspect’s face partially hidden by a black ski mask. But this newly released photo shows the suspect’s face more clearly.

Police are asking for the public’s help in tracking down Dashanna’s killer.