‘Help, Help, Help!’: Texas Student Fatally Stabbed 28 Times Over Dispute with 40-Year-Old Stranger She Was Forced to Live with— Now Her Parents Are Suing Student Housing Company | FROUSA Media

Elizabeth “Tami” Odunsi, a Texas Woman’s University student just days away from graduation, was stabbed nearly 30 times on April 26 at the Goforth Street apartment she shared with Chester Lamar Grant, 40. He has since been charged in connection with the slaying and remains in the Harris County Jail with bond set at $500,000.

“She was quite literally at the finishing line,” her younger sister, Georgina Odunsi, said during a Tuesday news conference announcing the lawsuit, according to the Houston Chronicle.

According to attorneys Jonathan Cox and Troy Pradia, about two months before her death, Odunsi and Grant were matched as roommates by the off-campus housing company For a Place to Live. The company, which bills itself as a student housing provider, allegedly outsourced background checks to a third-party screening firm, SafeRent Solutions — both are named as defendants in the action.

Cox said Grant had multiple prior convictions, including at least one felony related to domestic violence in Washington state.

“It’s unconscionable that this company would place this 40-year-old man with past criminal history, violent criminal history, with Tami, who was 23 years old,” he said.

Court documents show Odunsi was found dead in her apartment after police were called for a welfare check around 3:50 p.m. Officers spotted blood on the back patio, giving them probable cause to force their way in.

Inside, they found Odunsi with 28 stab wounds lying on the kitchen floor. Grant was discovered injured in a nearby bedroom and was hospitalized in critical condition. Police say he had attempted to take his own life.

Just days before the stabbing, Odunsi reported feeling unsafe. According to the family’s lawsuit, Grant had attacked her during a dispute over their cats — knocking her phone out of her hand, threatening her life, and pouring an unknown liquid on her face. She filed a police report and reached out to the housing company for help, but the meeting she arranged with them was reportedly canceled.

“She did all the right things,” Pradia said.

Odunsi’s mother, Adenike Odunsi, said her daughter called her on the day of the killing, frightened to return home. As she approached the door, she noticed her shoes had been filled with feces. On the call, Adenike said she heard her daughter ask Grant about the incident, then scream, “Help, help, help,” before the line went dead.

“We didn’t just lose Tami; she was stolen from us,” Georgina said, fighting tears. “A part of our family is missing and dare I say, the glue that held our family together is missing. We will forever love Tami, and we will never stop saying her name.”

Grant was arrested on May 3 and charged with murder. At his bond hearing, a Harris County judge described the case as “an allegedly extremely brutal murder with an extensive history of violence, which I find to be an extreme danger to the community.”

Georgina Odunsi traveled from the U.K. to announce the lawsuit. “The amount of trauma that my family and I have experienced is unfair,” she said. “The ringing noise in my ear that began as soon as I heard the news has not stopped since, and I fear it never will.”

Odunsi was awarded a posthumous Bachelor of Science in Nursing during TWU’s May commencement ceremony, accepted by her family.

Odunsi had over 48,000 TikTok followers, where she shared updates about her nursing school journey under the name Tami Dollars. A GoFundMe campaign described her as “a beautiful soul, full of light, ambition, and kindness,” and “a God-fearing young woman” who came to the U.S. from Europe to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.

Her father, John Odunsi, told The Times of London that he is considering legal action against police and the landlord, claiming authorities had visited the apartment in the past and that the housing company should have flagged Grant’s violent history.

“If there are failings, we will take legal action … I feel failed by the police from what I’ve heard,” he said. “The landlord should’ve done the necessary checks on the tenant who was staying with my daughter. I don’t know what sort of vetting was done on the roommate — that’s what we’re trying to ascertain — but unfortunately it won’t bring back my lovely daughter.”

Both For a Place to Live and SafeRent Solutions did not respond to repeated requests for comment, according to multiple sources.