Her son was found shot in a car 2 years ago. Why this mom is no closer to getting answers
- The family first learned of Elijah Covington's death through a news article that included a picture of his sister's car, which he was using at the time.
- His mother said Covington was working on his music career, which was beginning to take off, and was ready to focus solely on his original music.
- A new detective has taken over Covington's case to give it a fresh set of eyes, according to New Castle County Police, the investigating agency.
For the last two years, Neffratia Harvey has clung to a red, crewneck T-shirt.
At first glance, the item looks like it could have been made for Valentine's Day. Created in February 2021 for Harvey’s 19-year-old son, the shirt features three menacing teddy bears, their hearts, fangs and eyes glimmering with red sparkles.
On closer look, however, it’s obvious this shirt has nothing to do with the Feb. 14 holiday. Toward the bottom of the bears, the words “Top Concerned” emerge from the red material, referencing one of Elijah Covington’s rap songs.
The shirt, which Harvey was working on the day Covington was killed, has begun to fade. It was never meant as anything more than a prototype – a design Harvey was trying to perfect for her son’s fledgling rap career.
But since Covington’s shooting death on Feb. 11, 2021, the polyester and cotton-blended material has taken on a new significance: For Harvey, it’s a reminder that her son’s life, much like the shirt’s image, is unfinished.
'That's my car'
The last couple of years have been agonizing for Harvey and her family.
They first learned of Covington’s death on Feb. 12, 2021, when the 19-year-old’s sister, Ataya, saw a news article about two young men found shot dead near Newark, Delaware.
The article, Harvey said, included a photo of Ataya’s car, a red Nissan with New York license plates. She was allowing her brother to use it at the time.
Harvey had thought it was odd when her son didn’t return home the night before after he and 20-year-old Zyitae Britt dropped off an acquaintance. Then she became concerned when Covington’s future mother-in-law contacted her later that night.
“Did Elijah leave yet?” Harvey recalls the woman asking her.
Covington was supposed to be bringing over infant formula for his 9-day-old daughter. He’d stopped by Harvey’s home that afternoon to grab the milk and toy with lyrics for a new song before returning to his girlfriend’s house for the night.
By the morning of Feb. 12, with no sign of Covington at his girlfriend’s home – and because he’d left his computer open and the lights on in his makeshift music studio at Harvey’s house – Harvey began searching for her son.
She was driving when Ataya called her.
“She’s screaming into the phone, ‘That’s my car, that’s my car,’” Harvey said. “I tell her: ‘Stop crying; don’t tell me no more.’”
Harvey quickly notified several of her family members that something was wrong and headed home. She was close to her house when she encountered New Castle County (Delaware) Police.
Stopping, she told the police that her son and Britt hadn’t come home the night before. The officers, Harvey said, told her to head home and that police would be in contact.
“I guess they got the sense that the kids that was in the car were maybe our kids,” Harvey said.
The official notification came later that day. It was a snowy Friday, 13 days after Covington’s 19th birthday and 10 days after his first child, a baby girl, was born.
‘The gentle teddy bear that he was’
Two years after her son’s murder, Harvey is no closer to getting an explanation as to why than she was the day she learned of Covington’s death.
The 19-year-old, she said, didn’t roll with a bad crew. While he’d gotten into some trouble when he was in his early teens, after spending six months at a court-ordered boy’s school near Pittsburgh, he told Harvey he was going to “do better” – not only for himself, but for his younger brother.
Court records show he was successful.
Save for two arguments with family members in 2020 when police were called, Covington didn’t have a criminal record. And while “he smoked his weed like kids do,” Harvey said, “he was not selling drugs or gang-banging.”
“That just wasn't his thing – he was more interested in music,” Harvey said.
Given police have not yet charged anyone in the murder – a new detective has taken over the case to give it a fresh set of eyes, New Castle County Police said – Harvey has been left to speculate as to why her son and Britt were murdered. She believes it was jealousy.
Covington’s music, she said, was starting to take off. He’d uploaded his raps to Apple Music and Spotify, but had recently learned that at least one of his songs was also on Pandora.
Because of this, and the birth of his daughter, he no longer wanted to collaborate with others, Harvey said. He made that clear on Instagram not long before he died.
“He posted that he was going to be focusing on himself and do his music, and not be featured on nobody else’s tracks,” Harvey said. “Next thing I know, my son is no longer here.”
While Harvey can’t understand how someone would take a person’s life due to jealousy, it’s the only explanation she can think of. Covington was kind-hearted and loving, she said, so much so that he would often rescue stray animals off the street and nourish them back to health.
“If a friend ain't got no food or nowhere to go, Elijah didn't care what I thought,” Harvey said. “He would sneak them inside the house. He didn't care about (my) consequences, just as long as they had food.”
This love for animals and others extended to his infant daughter. When he learned he was going to be a dad, Covington was thrilled, Harvey said. Instagram posts leading up to and after her birth also show this.
In a photo posted when the infant was a day old – eight days before his death – Covington wrote: “Still can’t believe this. Your (sic) the best thing that has happened to me.”
He and his longtime girlfriend had plans to marry and buy a home, Harvey said. Then, they hoped at some point to try for a baby boy.
Now, Covington’s girlfriend is raising their daughter alone. And the little girl, instead of being showered with her father’s love, only recognizes him through photos and videos.
“When I look at her, I see her dad and it makes me sad,” Harvey said. “It makes me sad that she will never get to know him and know the gentle teddy bear that he was.”
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