Ruthless killing took family’s magnet [The Sacramento Bee, Calif.]

Sept. 14--On Friday, 49-year-old Madalene Thomas packed her belongings and moved from Reno. En route to New York to care for an ailing aunt, Thomas stopped in Sacramento to visit family and friends.

She never made it to New York.

Thomas was driving southbound on Explorer Drive with her 18-year-old nephew Sunday morning when she was stopped by another vehicle near Explorer Drive and Greensboro Circle in Rancho Cordova. The driver of that car got out and fired one shot into her car, according to Rancho Cordova police officials.

When police arrived, Thomas was inside her car in the parking lot of a business complex in the 3000 block of Explorer Drive. She had been shot in her upper body. Paramedics arrived a short time later and pronounced her dead at the scene.

The teenager told officers they were headed south on Explorer Drive when a car with two occupants passed them and stopped near Greensboro Circle. When Thomas pulled alongside the stopped car, the driver of the other vehicle got out and fired, authorities reported.

Although Thomas was hit, she drove a short distance until her car hit a tree at the business complex, officers said.

Police said the teenage passenger was unable to describe either of the occupants or the other vehicle.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said Monday an investigation of the shooting is ongoing and that they have no new leads on a description of the suspect or the vehicle.

"Some ruthless people made the decision that they were going to do something," said 57-year-old Raynell Davis, Thomas' godsister. "It could have been anybody."

About three miles from the site of the shooting, family and friends gathered Monday at a house on White Rock Road to mourn the loss of a loved one they described as the magnet who pulled everyone together. Thomas was the seventh child out of 12 siblings in her family and the mother of one son.

"She had the ability to, if you were down, to pick you up and if you were up to bring you higher," said Randy Ran, 48, a friend who has known Thomas for more than 30 years.

Ran said that Thomas was the life of the party and often inspired him when he was writing poetry. She also loved to craft items such as pillows and curtains in her free time.

"No matter what you were going through, talking to Madalene would help you feel better," said cousin Toni Thompson Brown, 52. "To hear her voice was uplifting."

Family members also remember Thomas, who worked in the auto insurance business as a jack of all trades -- as someone who was good with numbers, artistic and loved sports.

"I used to call her 'MadGyver' because if you tell her that something is broken and you need to fix something, she would literally find something to put it back together and make it work," said sister Catt Thomas, 48.

At times during the interview, Catt Thomas teared up while talking about her sister.

Friends and family members said that they don't know the details of what happened to Thomas that night, but they noted that she never had any enemies.

Donna Jones Haddad, 48, has known Thomas since she was in the sixth grade. She recalled how she helped her adjust to her move from New York and would randomly help strangers on the street who she thought were in trouble.

"There is a great loss on this planet because she's gone, but there's a great gift that she was here," Haddad said.

"No matter what you were going through, talking to Madalene would help you feel better. To hear her voice was uplifting."

TONI THOMPSON BROWN, cousin of Madalene Thomas, who was shot and killed while driving Sunday morning

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Call The Bee's Queenie Wong, (916) 321-1008. Bee staff writer Loretta Kalb and Bee researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to this report.

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