Friends say Killeen woman killed in apartment fire had a ‘heart of gold’

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - A Central Texas community is remembering Robin Lynn Ashford, the woman when her apartment caught fire Monday, as a fun person with a “heart of gold.”

Bernard Daniel, who lives at the apartment complex on Lake Road and was one of Ashford’s closest friend,” said he witnessed the commotion the night of the fire but didn’t think much of it.

“I really just thought she left her stove on. I really didn’t think she was in there,” Daniel said.

Killeen Police Wednesday said someone intentionally set the fire and that Ashford’s death was no accident, rather, it is being investigated as a homicide.

Police say Ashford’s apartment unit went up in flames in the early-morning hours of March 7 in the 4300 block of Lake Road.

Killeen Fire Department firefighters entered the apartment with heavy smoke and found her body.

Paramedics performed CPR, but she was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:44 a.m. by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke.

Friends of the 49-year-old woman said that although the circumstances of her death are generally strange, it’s even stranger that something like this would happen to Ashford considering she was a fun-loving person who got along with almost everyone.

“She just had a heart of gold. Just a fun person. A fun person to be around. She had energy. You wanted to laugh, cry on her. She was there for you,” Daniel said.

Many of the people Ashford laughed and cried with were at the O’Malley’s Bar in Killeen where she spent a lot of time. Since her death on Monday the bar has turned the table where she always sat into a memorial adorned with flowers and balloons.

Friends and family will host a celebration of Ashford’s life with a memorial balloon release at O’Malley’s at 4:30pm Sunday March 13.

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