‘She was like God’s angel’: Family of murdered Pittsburgh mother of 3 mourns horrific loss

PITTSBURGH — Sharay Woodson, a mom of three, should be celebrating her 41st birthday. Instead, her family is planning her funeral and is left to raise her three children. Woodson was reported missing on Tuesday, June 7, and was found dead inside her home on East Elizabeth Street in Hazelwood. Her parents tell me her body was so well hidden in the basement that they couldn’t find her when they went to check on her. Police found her.

According to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office, she died after being stabbed multiple times in the neck.

Police named her husband, Jon Newson, as the murder suspect. On Friday, the U.S. Marshals surrounded a home in Philadelphia where he was believed to be hiding in. Pittsburgh Police say while approaching the home, law enforcement heard three shots from the inside. When SWAT was able to go into the home, Jon Newson was found dead it.

“She did not deserve this from somebody she loved so much,” Sharay Woodson’s mom, Lois Woodson, tells Channel 11. “It hurts. It’s like a hole. It didn’t have to happen. He didn’t have to kill her.”

“She’d give you the shirt off her back,” her brother Ray Woodson adds. “She was like God’s angel.”

Woodson’s family asked that we refer to Sharay by her maiden name. Her family wants to know why her husband couldn’t have just walked away.

“Just why? Why, why, why would you do something so terrible, so bad to someone who loved you so much?” her mother said.

Woodson’s family tells me there were two Protection From Abuse (PFA) orders against Jon Newson and he was in mental health court, but still managed to come to her home and control her every move.

Her mom says she was the last to talk to her daughter. It was last Sunday and she said Newson was livid she went to church without him.

“She said she ran out the house and down to a bus stop without shoes on,” her mother tells Channel 11.

Lois Woodson says her daughter didn’t want to leave her children behind and she went back to her home where Newson was.

“She said, ‘I’ll stay on the porch until he calms down,’ and that was the last time I spoke with her,” Lois Woodson said.

The Woodson family will now raise Sharay’s three children, who are 9, 6 and 2 years old. The 6-year-old shares a birthday with her mom.

The family is still trying to figure out what the kids need and will be putting together a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.

If you or a loved one are in need of domestic violence resources, there is a 24/7 hotline you can call: 800-799-SAFE.

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