A Mother’s Unending Grief: The Tragic Murder of Katlyn Lyon Montgomery

The Devastating Discovery

The moment Crystal Sale walked into that hospital room on October 7, 2022, her world shattered into pieces that would never fully come together again. As she approached her daughter Katlyn Lyon Montgomery’s bedside, she witnessed a scene no parent should ever have to endure—medical professionals performing CPR on her 28-year-old daughter. That image would become permanently seared into her memory, a nightmare that replays endlessly in her mind. Initially, first responders believed Katlyn had suffered a drug overdose, but the physical evidence told a darker story. The marks on Katlyn’s neck and the absence of drugs at the scene revealed the horrifying truth: she had been the victim of a violent assault. A hospital technician pulled Crystal aside and delivered words that would haunt her forever: “It wasn’t drugs. Someone hurt your baby.” Katlyn had been strangled, and the distinctive parallel marks on her neck indicated the attack had occurred very recently—within an hour of the emergency call. For 29 agonizing hours, doctors fought to save her life, but on October 8th, Katlyn was declared brain dead. Crystal’s grief was indescribable, a pain so profound that she told investigators there weren’t words invented to capture the agony of losing a child to murder.

A Life Full of Promise Cut Short

Katlyn Lyon Montgomery was far more than a victim—she was a vibrant young woman who loved life with infectious enthusiasm. Her brother Jake Lyon remembered how she discovered electronic dance music with him and how she would light up at concerts and dance parties, her energy drawing crowds wherever she went. She expressed her individuality through constantly changing her hair color, with purple being one of her favorites. When Katlyn unexpectedly became pregnant with her daughter Milani, she didn’t need much help despite being a single mother. Working full-time as a restaurant manager, she provided for her child with determination and independence that made her family proud. “She was rocking it,” Crystal recalled with bittersweet pride. Katlyn had dreams and plans for the future. She wanted a supportive partner who could be a father figure to Milani, someone she might eventually marry. When she met Trenton Frye on a dating app in January 2022, he seemed to fit that description perfectly. The tall, fitness-obsessed North Carolina native claimed to own both a security company and a construction company. To Katlyn’s family, he appeared to have his life together—exactly what Katlyn was looking for as she built a stable life for herself and her daughter.

The Relationship That Became a Prison

What began as a promising romance gradually revealed itself to be something far more sinister. Katlyn’s roommate and close friend Hannah McDowell noticed troubling changes almost immediately. Despite claiming to run two businesses three hours away in North Carolina, Trenton seemed to spend weeks at their apartment, perpetually lounging on the couch. Hannah watched as Katlyn’s vibrant social life withered away—she stopped going out with friends, stopped dancing, and became increasingly isolated. The red flags multiplied. Trenton tracked Katlyn’s location on her phone constantly. Hannah described feeling as though Katlyn was “chained to him.” Financial concerns arose when Katlyn complained to her Aunt Sherry that despite his claims of business success, she was paying for everything. When he tried convincing her to move to North Carolina, promising to find them an apartment, the truth finally emerged in early September 2022: Trenton had lied about virtually everything. He didn’t own businesses, he didn’t have income, and he lacked the credit to qualify for an apartment. Devastated and feeling betrayed, Katlyn made the decision that would ultimately cost her life—she broke up with Trenton Frye and blocked his number. She was done with the relationship and ready for a fresh start. She found a new apartment with her friend Jacob Piercy, excited to live closer to her family and begin a new chapter with Milani.

A Stalker’s Deadly Obsession

What Katlyn didn’t know was that Trenton Frye wasn’t prepared to let her go. Three days before her murder, on October 4, 2022, Frye’s cellphone began ping off cell towers near Katlyn’s new apartment complex in Forest, Virginia—contradicting his later claims that he was working in North Carolina the entire time. Investigators would later piece together a chilling timeline of surveillance and stalking. On October 6, the day before the attack, a neighbor photographed an unfamiliar man sitting at a picnic table on an elevated hill overlooking Katlyn’s building. That man was later identified as Trenton Frye, positioned at a perfect vantage point to watch her apartment for hours. Two hours after that photo was taken, surveillance cameras captured Frye’s SUV pulling into a nearby gas station. Inside the store, he was wearing all black—what prosecutor Wes Nance would later describe as “stealth mode,” comparing him to a ninja preparing for an attack. That evening, Frye texted Katlyn’s Aunt Sherry asking about finishing work on her floors—a transparent attempt to make contact. When Sherry alerted Katlyn, she unblocked Trenton’s number long enough to tell him to stop contacting her family. The text exchange that followed revealed his anger and jealousy about her living situation with Jacob Piercy, calling her a “piece of s***” and warning that “karma is a bitch.” Frightened by the exchange, Katlyn considered retrieving her pistol from her mother’s house but ultimately didn’t follow through—a decision that may have cost her life.

The Attack and Investigation

Around midnight on October 6th, after Katlyn, Milani, and Jacob Piercy had dinner and watched TV together, Jacob heard a noise near their second-floor balcony. He looked outside but saw nothing and believed he locked the sliding glass door before going to bed. Investigators later discovered the lock was broken—the entry point they believe Trenton Frye used to access the apartment. Frye’s Google searches revealed he had researched the layout of the apartment, helping him locate Katlyn’s bedroom in the dark. Prosecutor Wes Nance believes Frye launched “an absolute brutal, sudden sneak attack” on Katlyn while she slept, strangling her with phone charging cords as her young daughter slept nearby. The attack was so quiet that neither Jacob Piercy nor the dogs in the apartment were awakened. When Milani eventually alerted Jacob that something was wrong with her mother, he rushed to help, immediately calling 911 and performing CPR—compressions that the 4-year-old initially described as her “brother” (her nickname for Jacob) “killing” her mom, briefly making him a suspect. Trenton Frye’s digital footprint betrayed him. After leaving Katlyn’s apartment, he began Googling breaking news about the incident and searching to see if there were any arrest warrants out for him. The most damning evidence came from his cellphone, which had automatically connected via Bluetooth to Katlyn’s iPad at 4:15 a.m.—placing him inside the apartment within feet of Katlyn during the window when the injuries occurred.

Justice for Katlyn and a Family’s Mission

Thirteen days after the murder, investigators arrested Trenton Frye at a mental health facility in North Carolina, where he had checked himself in shortly after Katlyn’s death. During interrogation, he denied involvement and claimed he was experiencing memory blackouts, conveniently unable to recall his actions during the critical timeframe. When confronted with evidence placing him at Katlyn’s apartment complex, he relied on what prosecutor Wes Nance called “an excuse out of a bad soap opera”—claiming amnesia. The trial, which finally took place in March 2025—two and a half years after Katlyn’s death—revealed the full extent of Frye’s obsession and deception. Defense attorney Joseph Sanzone argued there was no murder at all, suggesting instead that Katlyn died in a consensual sex act gone wrong with Jacob Piercy, a theory that infuriated Katlyn’s family and was contradicted by medical evidence. Surprisingly, Trenton Frye took the stand, his memory apparently restored, maintaining he only watched Katlyn’s apartment from outside and never entered. The jury deliberated for just one hour before returning a guilty verdict for first-degree murder. At sentencing, Katlyn’s family made victim impact statements that laid bare the devastation. Her brother Jake spoke of how Milani now lives in fear of the dark and monsters that come while you’re sleeping. Crystal begged for a life sentence, saying she had been sentenced to a lifetime without her daughter, and Milani to a lifetime without her mother. Judge James Updike sentenced Trenton Frye to life in prison, acknowledging the “unimaginable” terror and horror he inflicted on Katlyn. Throughout the investigation and trial, Katlyn’s family—particularly her mother Crystal and aunts Tina Hopkins and Sherry Cox—used TikTok to share updates, process their grief, and advocate for justice. What began as a way to connect family became a platform to honor Katlyn’s memory and raise awareness about domestic violence. Crystal transformed her unspeakable pain into purpose, becoming her daughter’s voice and working to help save other women from similar fates. Today, Milani is being raised by her Aunt Sherry, who she now calls “Mommy,” while Crystal embraces her role as grandmother. Jacob Piercy, once briefly suspected, has been welcomed into the family as a hero who did everything he could to save Katlyn. And Katlyn’s memory lives on through her journals, where her final entry focused on love: “I am loved. I deserve to be loved. I am worthy of love.” She knew she was loved, and as her mother said through tears, she still is—very much so.