My mom’s legacy was trashed, family says after body found in garage with mechanic

Tameka Hargrave had just made the dean’s list at Essex County College and was two semesters away from getting a degree in sociology.

In the Newark neighborhood where she lived at Pilgrim Baptist Village, an apartment complex adjacent to Nat Turner Park, Hargrave was also the community mom who looked after the children as if they were her own.

A mother of two daughters – one 13 and the other 23 – Hargrave often gave out snacks to the kids after school and inquired about their day.  If it was getting late into the evening, she’d round them up from the park and made sure they got home.

“She was like a second mom to kids around here,” said her daughter, Shaquayah Hargrave, 23. “She made sure everyone was safe.”

This is the Tameka Hargrave that family and friends know. She’s not the woman, whose name they believe has been tarnished in reports surrounding her tragic death Monday night. 

According to a source, Hargrave and a 56-year-old mechanic died of possible carbon monoxide poisoning while having sex in a running car inside a closed garage at the apartment complex.

They were both pronounced dead at the scene after officers responded to a call of “sick or injured persons” before 8:45 p.m. 

“That person that put that out there is just trying to tarnish her name and I don’t want that to be the last thing people read about her,” said December Thomas, her childhood friend, who lives in New York.

“She shouldn’t be known as the girl who died in the garage. That’s not who she was.”

Kahali Johnson, who was not married to Hargrave, said he is “livid” about the information that has been put out there over his long-time companion of 13 years. Authorities said he discovered the two in the car.

Shaquayah Hargrave said detectives told her that the mechanic was found by the hood of the car.

“There was work being done on the car,” she said. “There was no foreplay, misplay, none of that. They said my mother was fully clothed.”

An intimate crowd gathered by the garage Wednesday evening. They brought white balloons, lit candles and left messages on a placard taped to the door. It was emotional. Friends and family hugged one another, some crying more loudly than others.

They shouted her name, “Tameka,” then released the balloons. As the balloons drifted away, the crowd clapped for Tameka, showering their memory of her with applause. Music from Beyonce was playing, too. The song, titled “Heaven,” captured the tender moment.

“She was my world,” Tameka’s mother, Violet Hargett said. “We did everything together.”

They talked every day, went shopping and ran errands. She said her daughter loved jeans and sneakers. Nike and Jordan footwear filled her closet, not pumps or high heels.

The last memorable outing they had was a three-day junket to Embassy Suites Hotel in Paramus on July 4.  It was an annual summer holiday ritual for mother and daughter, whose relationship was more akin to two sisters hanging out.

“She was always checking on me,” Hargett said.

They talked last on Monday when Hargrave told her mother that she made the dean’s list at Essex County College.

“They sent her a letter and she read it to me,” Hargett said.

Thomas was never out of the loop, either.

Both spoke on Monday, too, about a cookout they were planning to have at the complex this weekend.

Hours later, Hargrave was dead, leaving Thomas heartbroken about the friend who always made her laugh.

“We still had a lot of goofy to put out in to the universe,” Thomas said. “She would make me laugh until my ribs hurt.”

Hargrave’s death hurts even more.

“I feel her,” Hargett said, standing in the driveway of the complex. “I’m coping with it, but for how long I don’t know.”

Thomas, however, is disgusted. She said her friend from the sandbox has a stain on her name and cruel comments on social media are “making a circus” of her death.

“It’s not funny,” she said. “It’s ugly and I don’t like it. That’s not her legacy.”

The brief vigil on Wednesday was the first of the remembrances for Hargrave. A viewing for her is from 4 to 8 p.m. July 19 at Whigham’s Funeral Home in Newark. The funeral is at 10 a.m. the next day on July 20.

Barry Carter: bcarter@starledger.com or nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL