Woman whose ex-boyfriend admitted to killing in motel, remembered as kind-hearted, soft-spoken

FOX 2 (WJBK) - The family of a woman found shot to death at a Taylor motel are sharing more about who the victim, LaKeisha Smith was - and the future she was planning.

"Keisha was a beautiful soul, she was very kind-hearted, friendly, soft-spoken," said Earl McGee, her uncle.

"If you saw her, you would always see her with a beautiful smile on her face, always cheerful, she was good with kids," said Eric McGee, another uncle.

Ever since she was a baby, Uncle Earl and Uncle Eric were pivotal father figures in LaKeisha Smith’s life.

"Her biological father, he passed away before she was born," Eric said.

They could never imagine that she too, would die at a young age - just as she was in the process of making a fresh start.

"It had come that time in the relationship and she was ready to move forward," Earl said. "She and I talked on Sunday about that, we revisited the conversation on Monday about that."

But the very next day she was killed at the Tel-Wick Inn on Telegraph in Taylor.

Her ex-boyfriend randomly approached police at a gas station a few miles away, confessing to the murder.

Related: Man tells police to arrest him because he murdered girlfriend at Taylor motel

Family members say she had recently broken things off with him and had moved back in with her mother.

"That heart of hers, that’s just her nature," said Eric. "My gut feeling is that what got her to that hotel, her being her, caring for people."

"In terms of him turning himself in, I’m grateful for that," Earl said. "Because now he’s one layer of pain that we don’t have to endure at this moment, and he’s not out here where he can hurt someone else."

LaKeisha leaves behind three children. She was just 38 years old.

"She still had her whole life ahead of her," Eric said. "Making strides, making changes, life is about learning from your mistakes and moving forward and that’s what she was doing."