Hello listeners, I'm your host Amara, and this is Black Girl God, a true crime podcast.

On this episode of Black Girl Gone, we tell a story of 22-year-old Sparkle-Rive who was murdered on April 26, 2000, in her apartment in Union City, Georgia.

A month before Sparkle had gotten married and had a five-month-old daughter.

The day that she was murdered, her husband came home and found her covered in blood.

She had been strangled and stabbed multiple times.

Their daughter was also there, just feet away from her, but unharmed.

After Sparkle's murder, suspicion fell on the most obvious suspect, her husband.

But for four years, Sparkle's case remained unsolved.

That was until a witness came forward, until police something that turned this story in an unbelievable direction.

Who killed Sparkle? And why?

This is Sparkle's story.

The story of what happened to Sparkle in April 2000 is a story that may be familiar to you, especially if you watch a lot of true crime.

Her story has been featured on Dateline and TV One Show, A Tale Homicide.

But for me, it was a story that I wanted to tell, especially for those who have never heard about what happened to her, because their lessons to be learned from Sparkle's death.

And it shows that racism and bigotry aren't just an opinion or an ideology.

And when people are consumed by it, they will do anything.

Sparkle was born Sparkle Reed on March 23rd, 1978.

She lived with her father, Bennett, and her younger sister, Keisha, and Atlanta, Georgia.

I couldn't find any information about Sparkle's birth mom, but when she was 16, her dad met a woman named Donna, who had a daughter of her own.

Bennett and Donna got married a year after they met, and they all moved in together in a home in Atlanta.

Donna said that they were one big, happy family.

Her daughter, who was seven at the time, adored her older new sisters, and the girls loved her and Donna.

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