Family of Malden woman found dead in East Boston seeking answers

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

The sister of a 20-year-old mother whose body was found last weekend in East Boston after she left a friend’s house in Cambridge said on Thursday night that relatives are desperately seeking to learn how their loved one died.

“It’s very hard for us to just sit there and wait,” said Ayahnna Williams, 28, of Medford.

She identified the woman found in the water on Saturday morning on Constitution Beach as her sister, Treshawna Williams, of Malden, who leaves a 20-month-old daughter, Taraie.

David Estrada, a Boston police spokesman, said on Thursday night that he could only confirm the victim’s last name as Williams. He said officers recovered her body at approximately 3:40 a.m. on Saturday.

He said he did not know if foul play is suspected, and a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley had no information late Thursday night on the case.

Ayahnna Williams said her sister was last seen leaving a friend’s house in Central Square by herself at 11:50 p.m. Friday.

Treshawna Williams had recently finished a medical administrative assistant program and had been offered a fulltime job at a Boston hospital, her sister said, and hoped to continue her studies and eventually open a youth center.

“She had things going for her,” Ayahnna Williams said.

She said police have told the family that they are waiting for information from the medical examiner’s office before they can say anything definitive about her death. She said they told her it might take weeks.

She said that the medical examiner’s office had shown her a photograph of Treshawna that showed lumps over one eye, which she was told may have been caused by being in the water for a long time.