Some tragic news: a mother and her two children, ages 11 and five, along with the mother’s partner, were found murdered in upstate New York yesterday.
Shanta Myers, 36, her partner, Brandi Mells, 22, and Myers’ two children, Jeremiah, 11, and Shanise, five, were found dead in their apartment yesterday in what police are calling a quadruple homocide, reports ABC News. Myers also has a 15-year-old son, Isaiah, who was out of state at a basketball tournament when the murder occurred.
“A local pastor said Shanta and her kids were much loved and respected in the neighborhood,” said the New York Post. Jeremiah was a member of the local Boys and Girls Club and played baseball and basketball at his school.
Troy Police Chief John Tedesco told News 10, “After being in this business for almost 42 years, I can’t describe the savagery of a person like this,” and added, “We feel that someone who commits a crime of this magnitude is capable of anything, but we do not believe it was a random act.” He said police “do not believe there is any imminent danger to the community.”
As of this writing, police have not announced any suspects. Albany’s Victory Christian Church is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, and the Capital Region Crime Stoppers is offering an additional reward of up to $1,500 cash, says the Post.
The Daily Beast also notes that the Troy Boys & Girls Club launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral and memorial costs for the family, and that a family friend, America Ray, created her own GoFundMe for the Myers family.
This is saddening and maddening, and my heart breaks for Isaiah and all of their family and friends. May they find solace and support in their family and community and may the perpetrator be brought to justice.
A note on terminology: All of the sources I have read, including the local Times Union, indicate that Myers and Mells were in a relationship, but do not say that Mells was also a mother to the children. I am usually very sensitive to instances when the media dismisses or downplays a nonbiological mother’s role, but in this case, the local Daily Gazette reports that Myers and her younger children only moved in with Mells in “recent months” and that Isaiah was living with a relative because Mells had limited space. The Daily Beast also notes that Myers moved to Troy in 2011 from North Carolina, where the father of the children lives. I’m therefore assuming from all this that Myers had the children before she and Mells began their relationship, and that their relationship is fairly new, so it is proper not to refer to Mells as a mother to the children—but I will update this if I learn otherwise.
