Kada Scott, the 23-year-old nursing assistant whose vibrant life was brutally extinguished on October 4, 2025, had a secret she shared only with those closest to her: a new beginning was just days away. According to her best friend, Aisha Carter, Kada was set to start a new job the following Monday, October 6, as a community outreach coordinator for a Philadelphia-based nonprofit focused on eldercare advocacy. In her neatly organized planner, a pastel-blue Moleskine she carried like a talisman, Kada had scrawled two words under that Monday’s date: “Finally free.” The phrase, brimming with hope, now carries a chilling weight. When police recovered her Hyundai Elantra, torched in a remote East Falls lot, the planner lay open on the passenger seat, its Monday page torn halfway through, as if someone—or something—sought to erase her future.
The discovery of Kada’s planner, revealed in a Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) evidence log on October 20, has added an emotional layer to a case already steeped in eerie anomalies: a CCTV reflection showing Kada walking backward, a cell phone ping from a rest stop she never visited, a pristine silver bracelet missing its “K” charm. For her family and friends, the torn page is more than evidence; it’s a wound, a symbol of a young woman poised for flight, grounded forever. “She was so excited,” Aisha, 24, told NBC10 in a tear-streaked interview outside Shiloh Baptist Church, where Kada’s family has leaned on faith to weather their grief. “That job was her ticket to something bigger—helping elders citywide, not just changing bedpans. She kept saying, ‘Aish, I’m gonna make a difference.’”
Kada’s life was a tapestry of grit and grace. Raised in Germantown’s tight-knit community, she juggled 12-hour shifts at Lotus Senior Care, a nonprofit serving 120 low-income seniors, with her passion for pageantry, earning a top-10 spot in the 2025 Miss Pennsylvania USA prelims. Her days were long—7 AM to 9:42 PM on October 4, thanks to overtime—but her spirit was boundless. She texted her mother, Tamara, at 9:17 PM that night: “Heading home now ❤️.” Twenty minutes later, her phone pinged 11 miles away at a Plymouth Meeting rest stop, a route she’d never take. By October 19, her body was found in a shallow grave behind the abandoned Ada H. Lewis Middle School, two miles from Lotus, bearing marks of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Keon King, a 21-year-old with a rap sheet of assault and carjacking, was arrested, linked by DNA, a tire iron, and a burner phone’s damning pings.
The planner, though, tells a story beyond the crime scene. Aisha described it as Kada’s “dream book,” filled with doodles of flowers, pageant rehearsal schedules, and nursing school goals. “She’d write quotes in the margins, like Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise,’” Aisha said. The “Finally free” entry, in Kada’s loopy purple ink, was flanked by a heart and a star sticker. The tear—jagged, slicing through Monday to Wednesday—suggests haste or rage. “It wasn’t an accident,” Detective Maria Ruiz of the PPD’s Special Victims Unit told reporters on October 21. “The rest of the planner’s intact, no water damage, no charring, despite the car fire. Someone wanted that page gone.” Forensic techs are analyzing the tear for microfibers or prints, but early results point only to Kada’s own fingerprints, smudged on the cover.
The new job was a leap toward Kada’s vision of systemic change. The nonprofit, ElderCare Alliance, aimed to connect seniors with affordable home services, a mission Kada championed after years of seeing Lotus residents struggle with Medicaid gaps. Her interview, secured after weeks of prep, was a triumph. “She nailed it,” said ElderCare’s HR director, Carla Nguyen, in a statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Kada’s empathy and energy were unmatched. She was set to start training October 6, 9 AM sharp.” The offer letter, found folded in the planner’s back pocket, promised a $42,000 salary—a modest but meaningful step up from her $16-an-hour CNA gig. “She called me screaming when she got it,” Aisha recalled. “Said she’d finally save enough to get her own place, maybe near Fairmount Park.”
The planner’s discovery in the burned-out Elantra, recovered October 10 in a lot off Kelly Drive, stunned investigators. The fire, set with an accelerant traced to a Wawa gas can, gutted the car’s interior, melting the dashboard and charring the seats. Yet the planner, wedged under a crumpled McDonald’s bag, was eerily preserved, its faux-leather cover barely singed. “It’s like it was placed there after the fire,” Ruiz speculated, though arson experts disagree, citing uneven burn patterns. The torn page has sparked debate: was it King’s attempt to destroy Kada’s dreams, a symbolic gut-punch? Or did Kada, in her final moments, tear it herself, a defiant act to protect her hopes? “She was a fighter,” Tamara Scott said at a vigil, clutching a photo of Kada in her pageant gown. “If she tore it, she was telling him, ‘You don’t get to own this.’”
King’s shadow looms large. Arrested October 14 after his phone pinged near the rest stop and a search turned up Kada’s phone case and bloodied gloves, he’s a textbook predator: foster care, dropped charges for assaulting a barista in 2025, a stolen Hyundai Accent linked to the crime. His October 20 charging documents added conspiracy, hinting at a second player, though PPD remains tight-lipped. “He knew her routine,” Ruiz said. “Watched her leave Lotus, probably saw her check that planner one last time.” Aisha confirmed Kada often jotted notes in the lot, leaning against her car. Did King snatch the planner during the abduction, only to discard it later? Or did he tear the page to taunt, as he allegedly did with her bracelet’s missing “K”?
The online world has seized the planner’s story with fervor. On X, #KadaPlanner trends with 320,000 posts, blending grief and sleuthing. TikTok’s @PhillyJusticeVibes (1.1M followers) posted a reenactment of Kada writing “Finally free,” garnering 2.3 million views. Reddit’s r/TrueCrimePhilly debates the tear’s intent: “Killers destroy trophies to mock,” one user wrote, citing Ted Bundy’s defaced photos. Others see Kada’s hand: “She was reclaiming her story.” Paranormal corners on 4chan tie the torn page to the CCTV reflection, spinning tales of a “time fracture” where Kada’s spirit lingers, her planner a tether. “That tear’s her scream,” posted @GhostOfGermantown, with 800K likes. Aisha dismisses the supernatural: “Kada’s no ghost. She was real, and someone stole her.”
The Scott family clings to her light. At a October 21 vigil, 400 strong, purple balloons—Kada’s color—soared above Germantown’s Vernon Park. Tamara read from a replica planner, her voice steady: “She wrote ‘Finally free’ because she believed in tomorrow. We honor that.” A GoFundMe for a scholarship in Kada’s name, funding nursing and pageant dreams, has hit $210,000. Councilmember Cindy Bass, speaking at the vigil, vowed to install cameras at every senior care facility lot. “Kada’s last steps should’ve been safe,” she said, glaring at PPD brass. DA Larry Krasner, under fire for King’s prior dropped charges, deflected: “We’re building a case to bury him.”
King’s November 3 hearing will see the planner entered as evidence, its torn page a silent witness. Forensic document analysts at the FBI’s Quantico lab are examining the tear’s angle and ink smudges, hoping to pinpoint the tool—fingers, blade, or blunt force. Meanwhile, ElderCare Alliance has dedicated its fall fundraiser to Kada, renaming a grant after her. “She’d have been out there, rallying for seniors,” Nguyen said. “Her heart was bigger than her paycheck.”
Philadelphia, bruised by 285 homicides this year, feels Kada’s loss like a collective bruise. The planner, like her bracelet and that ghostly ping, is a fragment of a life interrupted, a dream torn mid-sentence. “Finally free” was Kada’s promise to herself, a vow of new horizons. As Tamara Scott said, holding that scorched Moleskine: “They tore her page, but not her story. We’ll finish it for her.”
