PHOENIX (KTVK/CNN) – A young mother's ex-boyfriend was arrested after she was found dead following a request for him to take a paternity test, according to court documents.
Jasmine Dunbar, 21, went missing Tuesday night. Her 7-month-old baby girl was found abandoned a few miles away from where her mother was last seen.
On Thursday, police said a body found significantly burned was believed to be that of Dunbar.
"Honest to God, I thought I would die before all my kids. I never thought I would feel this – ever,” said Tonya Smith, Dunbar’s mother.
Smith and her daughter had just begun to enjoy an even closer bond when Jasmine gave birth to a daughter of her own, named Ariel.
“Jasmine had Ariel, and God brought us right back where we were supposed to be. And she's the center of all of that,” Smith said.
Dunbar’s family told police she was last seen in a car with her ex-boyfriend Antwaun Ware. The 21-year-old was reportedly meeting him to take a paternity test.
According to the police report, Ware told detectives after picking Dunbar up, he beat her then dumped her in a field. She was reportedly still alive at that time.
Documents say Ware abandoned Dunbar’s baby on the side of the road then went back to where he dumped the body and set Dunbar on fire.
According to the police report, Ware “put a piece of paper on the body and then poured gasoline on her. He then set it afire with a cigarette.”
"How scared she must have been. She had to be scared out of her mind, thinking, 'You have my daughter,’” Smith said.
Ware was arrested on one count each of first-degree murder, kidnapping, abandonment of a body and child abuse.
Smith calls Ware a coward.
"Why would you go back? To kill her? For what? Because she asked you to take a DNA test?” she said.
Now, Dunbar’s family is pulling together to surround her baby with lots of love.
"I know that her life is going to be fine because our family has pulled together for her, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to tell her this one day, you know? And that scares me to death,” Smith said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses and to care for Dunbar’s daughter.
Ware has been booked into the Maricopa County Jail.
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