Arrest made in shooting death of pregnant Upper Darby woman

A Fairmount woman has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of Dianna Brice, the 21-year-old pregnant woman whose body was found last Monday in Philadelphia.

Tylydia Garnett was arrested Saturday by Philadelphia’s Homicide Fugitive Unit with the assistance of the FBI Gun Violence Task Force, police said.

Garnett is charged with arson, abuse of a corpse, criminal conspiracy, use of communication facility, and related offenses. Police did not say where she was taken into custody and said the investigation into Brice’s slaying is continuing.

Police said Garnett, 21, lives in the 3000 block of West Harper Street in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood.

On March 30, Brice’s mother, Betty Cellini, reported her daughter missing to Upper Darby police. Cellini said Brice, who was three months pregnant, was last seen getting into her boyfriend Justin Smith’s gray Ford Fusion outside the K Laundry on the 500 block of Church Lane in Yeadon.

Upper Darby police tracked Brice and the boyfriend through a cell phone to West Philadelphia. Last Monday, police found Brice’s body in a debris pile in a wooded area on the 5800 block of Eastwick Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. An autopsy determined the cause of her death was multiple gunshot wounds to the head, police said.

Brice’s body was found about a mile from where investigators had discovered a car registered to Smith, 23, on fire just hours after her disappearance.

Police have said Smith’s cell phone has been off since March 30, and his wallet and car keys were found discarded near the burning vehicle.

Smith has not been found.