Tara Correa-McMullen was born in Westminster, Vermont, to mother Mary Devra Correa and father Thomas McMullen.

[1] In 1996, she, her mother, and her older sister Abigail moved to Southern California, and later settled in Venice, an affluent neighborhood of Los Angeles.

In early 2005, 16-year-old Correa-McMullen moved into her own apartment in Inglewood, California, and began dating a gang member, Christopher Avery, who was 10 years older than her at the time.

[7] Watts' accomplice in the shooting spree, Joseph Wayne Jones, was also sentenced to life without parole.

[8] Correa-McMullen's murder was featured in "A Rising Star Shot Down", the premiere episode of the 2024 season of the true crime documentary series Death by Fame, on the Canadian Investigation Discovery.