Trenton David Mills Frye is a native of Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. His former girlfriend Katlyn Elizabeth Lyon Montgomery lived in an apartment on Madison View Drive in ForestBedford County, Forest, Virginia, USA with her daughter Milani Rai Lyon and a roommate named Jacob Piercy.
Greensboro was named after military officer and planter Nathanael Greene. The city is around 108 miles away from Forest.
Katlyn Montgomery
Montgomery managed a steak and sushi restaurant. She is David R. Lyon and Crystal Jamerson Sale‘s daughter.
David is George Lyon and Carole Ferguson‘s son. Sale is Charlie Jamerson Jr. and Vivian Jamerson‘s daughter.
Montgomery has three brothers namely Jacob Lyon, Jordan Lyon and Grayson Lyon. Jacob is married to Dina Lyon and Jordan is married to Zoe Lyon.
Tiffany Parker and Chris Sale are Montgomery’s step-siblings. In 2018, Montgomery gave birth to Milani.
On May 22, 2022, Montgomery turned 28. On the evening of October 6, 2022, she and Piercy watched television late before bed in their apartment.
That night, Piercy heard something on the back patio so he looked outside but did not see anything. At around 5:00 a.m. on October 7, 2022, Milani woke him up saying something was wrong with Montgomery.
Piercy called 911 after finding Montgomery on the bed unresponsive. She was rushed to Lynchburg General Hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia where she was pronounced dead from strangulation on October 8, 2022.
Doctors noted linear markings consistent with being strangled on Montgomery’s neck and throat and other signs of physical trauma. In her apartment, investigators found phone charging cords wrapped up in a blanket on the bed.
Trenton Frye
Frye is not the father of Montgomery’s daughter. While the two were in a relationship, he was behind on child support payments to another woman.
In June 2022, Montgomery suffered a miscarriage from a pregnancy with Frye. In September 2022, she broke up with him and moved to Forest.
After the breakup, Frye allegedly kept sending Montgomery text messages in an attempt to get back with her. In one message, he told her, “My mental issues are getting out of control. Hurting like I never have before.”
Over text messages, Frye and Montgomery were arguing the night of October 6, 2022 and into the morning of October 7, 2022. Frye did not work the night of both days, according to his employer.
At 10:19 p.m. on October 6, 2022, a cellphone belonging to Frye transmitted to a tower at Ashwood Park Road in Forest, which is around 1 mile from Montgomery’s apartment. The cellphone did not begin transmitting to any towers in North Carolina until it transmitted to a Greensboro tower at 9:36 a.m. on October 7, 2022.
On the afternoon of October 8, 2022, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office contacted Frye by telephone. In the call, he claimed he was working in North Carolina on the evening of October 6, 2022 and that he was not aware of anything wrong with Montgomery.
On October 9, 2022, Frye checked himself into Cone Health Behavioral Health Hospital in Greensboro. On October 13, 2022, law enforcement received data from his cellphone, confirming his whereabouts the night before Montgomery was found unresponsive, and interviewed his employer.
Through a joint investigation between the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Frye was identified as a suspect. On October 20, 202, he was arrested without incident in Greensboro.
On November 30, 2022, the sheriff’s office transported Frye to Virginia. He was held without bond at Blue Ridge Regional Jail’s Amherst facility in Lynchburg.
In February 2025, Frye turned 31. On March 31, 2025, his murder trial started in a courtroom in Bedford County.
When Frye took to the stand to testify on April 3, 2025, he admitted that he spent time in the area of Montgomery’s apartment and searched her floor plan in the days before she died. He claimed that he had a bad feeling so he drove to her apartment the night before she was found unresponsive.
On April 5, 2025, the jury only spent an hour to deliberate. Represented by Joseph Sanzone, Frye was found guilty of first-degree murder.
On May 6, 2025, Frye will be back in court for a term hearing. His sentencing date has yet to be set.
CONAN Daily 