Police say Tiffany Green Barber surrendered while officers were still at her mother’s Bethel Avenue home and later described where she left a weapon.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 43-year-old Memphis woman faces first-degree murder and evidence-tampering charges after police found her 74-year-old mother fatally stabbed inside a Bethel Avenue home and say the daughter walked into a police station while emergency crews were still working at the scene.

The case against Tiffany Lafay Green Barber developed across two locations on the night of Aug. 18: the 600 block of Bethel Avenue, where officers found Jannie Green badly wounded in a chair, and a Memphis Police Department station on North Main Street, where authorities say Barber arrived with blood on her clothing. Police say Barber told officers she had stabbed someone at a home on Bethel Avenue. Investigators later identified Green as her mother and charged Barber with first-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence. No motive has been publicly established in the reports reviewed for this article.

Police were first sent to the Bethel Avenue residence on a disturbance call. Local reporting citing the police affidavit placed officers’ arrival at about 11 p.m. They entered the home and found Green seated in a chair with multiple stab wounds, according to police. Memphis Fire Department personnel responded and tried to save her, but Green was pronounced dead at the residence. Authorities have not released a detailed public account of what happened inside the home before officers arrived, and the available reporting does not identify a witness who described the confrontation between Green and her daughter.

The investigation took an unusual turn while police and emergency personnel were still at the residence. Authorities say Barber entered the police station on North Main Street with blood visible on her clothing. She told officers she had stabbed someone at a home in the same 600 block of Bethel Avenue, according to the affidavit described by local news outlets. Officers took Barber into custody. Police say that during a later interview she stated that she had stabbed her mother before leaving the residence. Those statements are allegations described by investigators and have not been tested through a trial.

Barber also told investigators that she had left the weapon in an alley behind Bethel Avenue, police said. Local station Action News 5 reported that officers went to the location Barber described and recovered a suspected weapon. That detail adds a second charge to the case because authorities accuse Barber not only of killing Green but also of tampering with evidence. The available reports do not describe forensic testing of the recovered item, and they do not disclose results linking it scientifically to Green’s injuries. Police also have not publicly described the weapon in detail in the reporting reviewed for this article.

Barber was booked in Shelby County on Aug. 18, according to an arrest record reflecting charges of first-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence. Early reports differed on her immediate bond and court status. WREG’s initial account, republished by AOL, said a bond had not yet been set and that Barber was expected in court the next morning. Law&Crime later reported that she was being held without bond and listed an Aug. 25 court date. A reliable public update establishing what occurred at that hearing, whether a later hearing was scheduled, whether Barber entered a plea or whether counsel formally appeared could not be confirmed in the sources reviewed through Sept. 28.

The timing of the killing also requires clarification because published reports do not all use the same date. Law&Crime listed the incident as Aug. 17 while calling that date a Tuesday. In 2026, however, Aug. 18 fell on Tuesday. Contemporaneous Memphis coverage published Aug. 19 said the killing happened Tuesday, and Green’s funeral-home obituary lists her date of death as Aug. 18. Those records make Aug. 18 the better-supported date. The discrepancy does not change the central account from police: officers responded to the Bethel Avenue home, Green was pronounced dead there, and Barber came to a police station while the scene remained active.

Green’s obituary identifies her as Jannie Mae Green, born March 23, 1952, in Drew, Mississippi. It says she was a Memphis resident and died Aug. 18 at age 74. Funeral arrangements were later made for early September, including visitation at M.J. Edwards Funeral Home and a celebration of life at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Memphis. Those details provide a limited public record of Green beyond the circumstances of her death. The obituary does not discuss the criminal investigation, and the reporting reviewed does not include statements from relatives describing Green or addressing the charges against Barber.

Police have not announced what they believe led to the violence. The reports reviewed do not establish an argument, financial dispute, prior threat, documented history of violence between the women or any other cause for the confrontation. They also do not provide a complete timeline showing when Green was injured, who made the disturbance call or how much time passed before Barber arrived at the police station. Those gaps are significant because the existing public account is based largely on the scene investigators encountered afterward and on statements police attribute to Barber after she came to the station.

The most concrete pieces of the publicly described case are therefore closely connected: Green was found with fatal stab wounds; Barber arrived at a police facility and allegedly identified the Bethel Avenue location; police say she later acknowledged stabbing her mother; and investigators recovered a suspected weapon from an alley where they say Barber told them it had been placed. Prosecutors would still have to prove the criminal charges with admissible evidence. Barber’s reported statements, the recovered object, any forensic testing, the condition of the residence and other evidence collected by police could become important if the case advances through court.

First-degree murder is the most serious charge filed against Barber in the available records, but the filing of that charge does not establish guilt. The reports reviewed do not identify the precise theory prosecutors intend to use to prove first-degree murder, nor do they contain a verified defense response. They also do not say whether Barber has challenged the admissibility or accuracy of the statements police attribute to her. Those questions normally become clearer through charging documents, preliminary hearings, motions and later court proceedings, but no verified post-August record answering them was available in the material reviewed.

The publicly verified account remains more complete about the night Green died than about what has happened in court since Barber’s arrest. Police say a mother was found mortally wounded in her home, her daughter surrendered soon afterward and investigators recovered a suspected weapon where the daughter said it had been left. What prompted the encounter, what additional evidence investigators collected and how Barber will respond to the allegations remain unresolved in the available record.

Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.