Young Dolph, whose given name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on Nov. 17 while visiting Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies, a bakery the rapper was known to frequent. He was 36.
Two men were arrested and indicted on first-degree murder charges in connection with the killing of Dolph, the U.S. Marshals Service announced on Tuesday evening. A third suspect was charged on Wednesday with being an accessory to the murder. His life partner Mia Jaye recently spoke with ABC about her life with the rapper and their plans to marry.
“It’s been extremely difficult just having to pick up the pieces and to find the strength for my children,” Jaye told ABC News Live’s Linsey Davis in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. “Now that he’s no longer here, it’s just very tough for me to be strong for them and be strong for myself because he — you know, Adolph was my soulmate.”
Jaye, who shares two children with Dolph, spoke out about the pain that her family is going through one day after police announced the capture of two suspects connected to his murder. Jaye and Dolph, who had been together for nearly a decade, share a son and a daughter — 7-year-old Tre and 4-year-old Ari — and had been planning their wedding when the rapper was killed, she said.
“They stole my future,” Jaye said, adding that over the past few years, the Memphis rapper had “made the sacrifices” he needed to make as a celebrity who travels a lot to be “present” with his family and they were looking forward to celebrating their “love story” with their children.
