ASHEVILLE - Two days before she was murdered, 24-year-old Ava Manley sent her father, Dr. John Manley, a text message with a Bible verse in it. Ava, a committed Christian who was close to her family, was worried about her dad.
"The verse is Romans 8:18: I believe that the present suffering is nothing compared to the coming glory that is going to be revealed to us," John Manley told the Citizen Times Aug. 14. Manley now believes that although Ava sent the text to comfort him, it prepared him, in a way, for what was about to happen.
On Sunday, Aug. 9, Ava, a native of Asheville, was shot to death outside her home in Denton, Texas, in full view of her neighbors, as she tried to flee, according to her family.
The Denton Police Department identified
31-year-old Collin Farley, a man Ava had previously dated, as the person who shot her. According to Ava's mother, Susie Manley, he continued shooting her after she fell to the ground. He then poured gasoline on her body. Susie Manly said that she spoke with a Denton Police Department detective about the details of her daughter's killing, which were corroborated by neighbors who witnessed the killing. Denton police have called Ava's killing an apparent murder-suicide, but the department declined to comment on the details of Ava's death.
"I viewed her body yesterday. She was riddled. She's shot all over," Manley said. "The lady right across the street took a picture. I saw my daughter laying there, a gas can between them."
Farley fired at neighbors who emerged from their homes, but didn't hit anyone, Susie Manley said. Then, he turned the gun on himself.
"He came there with zip ties, rope, a bat," she said. "The detective thinks he was planning to kidnap her and do something even worse."
Who was Ava Manley?
Ava Manley was a 2020 graduate of T.C. Roberson High School and a student at the University of North Texas, according to her family.
She was a deeply empathetic, compassionate person who found the beauty in things that others tended to miss, according to her family.
"She felt hard. She really felt everything," Susie Manley said.
At T.C. Roberson, she was a "rockstar" tennis player, one of her sisters, Jourdan Vartabedian, said.
She was also a photographer, a baker and an exceptional host, holding themed parties for her friends complete with invitations, party favors, cakes she made, and decorations.
"Every detail was thought of," Vartabedian said.
Gentry Manley, Ava's other sister, said that after her death, one of Ava's neighbors posted a story Gentry had never heard.
The neighbor said that when they met, Ava was wearing a "Little Women" T-shirt, and they talked about it, the neighbor telling Ava how much she loved the movie. A few hours later, the neighbor went outside and found that Ava had left the shirt on her porch.
This was typical of Ava, who was known for finding meaningful ways to connect with people, Susie Manley said.
Vartabedian said that growing up, Ava would wake her up on Black Friday and the two would go shopping and to Starbucks to get coffee.
"She just wanted to be hanging out with me," she said.
"She loved family. All my children are very close with one another," Susie Manley added.
Ava loved fashion, and she walked in several fashion shows in Texas, her family said.
She had a knack for putting outfits together and loved vintage clothing.
Initially, after high school, she wasn't ready to go to college, and she chose to move to McKinney, Texas, to live with her sister Gentry in 2021, Susie Manley said.
McKinney was, "a Hallmark town," Gentry said. It appealed to Ava, in part, because it was walkable. Although Ava had her driver's license, she never wanted to drive, Susie Manley said. "She walked everywhere and always lived where she could walk," Susie Manley said.
She loved the show Gilmore Girls.
"She loved that whole vibe," Susie Manley said.
"She was kind of living that out," Vartabedian said.
She also worked as an event manager at 940's Kitchen and Cocktails, an upscale restaurant and cocktail bar in Denton, Texas, and she was studying hospitality in college. She was nine credit hours away from graduating when she was killed.
A bad relationship
Ava had dated Farley for around a year and a half, but the two separated months before her death. In one incident, Farley threatened Ava and her dog, Bingo, with a gun, and kicked Bingo, according to her family.
"They broke up in June because he went irate. He was growing increasingly more jealous and obsessive," Susie Manley said. "They got in this argument, and he went out to his car and got a gun and loaded it and threatened to kill her dog, Bingo. Ava scooped up Bingo and ran."
Ava managed to escape from Farley after that encounter, and she blocked him on social media, got her locks changed, and tried to get a protective order, going to the Denton Police Department and asking for help, Susie Manley said.
"They couldn't get anybody to listen to her or help with this whole situation," she said. "They gave her a packet and sent her on her way."
Denton Police Department spokesperson Amy Cunningham told the Citizen Times Aug. 17 that Ava spoke with someone at the police department earlier this summer while seeking a protective order. Cunningham said that the department told Ava to contact the Denton County District Attorney's Office, which is the department's protocol for when someone is seeking a protective order.
Susie Manley said that Ava's family found out after her death from neighbors that Farley had been seen in Ava's neighborhood prior to her killing. He also had called her from different numbers and messaged her from fake Instagram accounts.
At one point, when they did talk, she told him, "You really scared me. I can't believe that you were hurting Bingo and that you would do that, and this is over," Susie Manley said. Ava told her mother that Farley said that he wouldn't hurt her, and that he'd respect her wishes.
Susie Manley said she met up with Gentry and Ava in Oklahoma shortly before Ava's death.
"I said, … 'Has that jerk tried to reach out to you?'" Susie Manley said. "And she said, 'Well, the last week he found another way. He reached out to me on Spotify. I didn't even know people could do that.'"
On the day Ava died, she got off from work early and walked home.
"Her purse was sitting on her bed, so she had come in from work, put her stuff down," Susie Manley said.
Ava also made a phone call, telling the person she called that it smelled like gas in her home, her mother said.
Ava's family now believes that Farley was lying in wait for her, hiding in her roommate's room with a gas can and a gun. Ava ran barefoot from the home and fought Farley outside, trying to get the gun away from him, her mother said.
"And she starts running as fast as she can. And the neighbor said, … she was shot about five times, and then she just started running in slow motion, like with awkward looking weird high knees, but she was probably dying, and then just fell. And he continues to shoot her," Susie Manley said. "Every shot on her ... was from the back."
Afterward, police found no manifesto or suicide letter written by Farley.
"She was so brave, and that has to be conveyed," Vartabedian said. "Because most people would completely be frozen."
"She was fighting. She tried to get that shotgun out of his hand," Susie Manley said.
Ava's legacy
Speaking from his home in Biltmore Forest, surrounded by his family, John Manley said that his only consolation now is his belief that Ava is in heaven. Other family members at times chimed in, describing the effect Ava had on them.
"She is in paradise. She's in a wonderful place," he said.
Ava is not defined by how she died, but by how she lived, Vartabedian said.
"Her life had so much impact to others, impact beyond even the impact she had on us," she said.
"She saw the beauty in almost everything," John Manley added.
Ava was the type of person that would stop and take the time to get to know others, Gentry Manley said. Since her death, stories from family and friends about Ava have come pouring in.
"We knew these things about her, but now we're receiving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stories. People that even just had one interaction with her," and described how she impacted their lives, Gentry Manley said.
"She loved to really talk to people and know them, in all walks of life, just a collector of souls is the way I would describe her," Susie Manley said. "She was so compassionate, and she felt people's pain as if it were hers, and she could feel people's joy as if it were hers."
Kara Fohner is the Public Safety Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email her at kfohner@usatodayco.com or call her at 980-241-8671.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 'She was so brave': Family remembers Ava Manley after Texas killing
