Ashleigh McKinzie, a 41-year-old college professor, was found dead near her home in Tennessee last week. Her own gun was loaded and found beside her body, while another armed man, Todd Stanton, waited by her side for the authorities to arrive.
McKinzie was a professor at Middle Tennessee State University and sustained multiple gunshot wounds before succumbing to her injuries. Her body was found on a highway near her home in Smithville, Tennessee, as reported by the New York Post.
District Attorney Bryant Dunaway took to Facebook to announce that Stanton was at the scene with his loaded gun on the hood of his truck. No definite connection between Stanton and McKinzie has been revealed by the police, and an investigation is going on about what led to McKinzie getting shot and ending up dead where she was found.
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Her sudden, unexplained death has naturally shocked her students, who said she always found ways to engage them, even on difficult topics such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, etc. According to the university website, McKinzie earned degrees from four different academic institutions, including her PhD from the University of Georgia in 2017 — one year before joining the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at MTSU, as reported by the New York Post.
Sierra Cruz, a senior at MTSU, talked to the student paper The Sidelines and said, “I still, every once in a while, stumble across that paper and I read it because I remember actually having fun in her class writing it, learning about it, studying it, meeting with her about it. Most college students hate papers. But Dr. McKinzie actually made me enjoy it.”
Another student, Olivia Kilpatrick, a senior in the course, told WZTV, “She was such a fierce advocate for nonviolence. For her to go in such a violent way is just so striking for all of us. Like, what could have happened?”
MURFREESBORO: “MTSU students are mourning the death of professor Ashleigh McKinzie… found shot multiple times 50 miles from campus, a loaded gun next to her… when officers arrived a man was at the scene in possession of a gun— he is not facing charges…” https://t.co/S6ZLdnCiNH pic.twitter.com/i3PN7TUINO
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) December 6, 2025
She further added, “I remember her saying, ‘If you have a gut feeling, trust it. That’s your intuition talking, and you have it for a reason’. Thinking that she said that right before she was gone, it’s definitely something that’s going to stick with me forever.”
As her students grapple with her sudden death, the case is being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Not much details about the victim have been revealed by the police till now, and further updates are awaited.
