believes she did this to prevent her toddlers from witnessing Al’s drunken rampages. But the children did witness violence. Even if they were in another room when he attacked their mother, the little ones heard Al’s shouting and Dee’s shrieks when he hit her. Once, when Camila and her husband, Gary, were picking up Shanna Kay and George, Dee handed Camila a change of clothing for the kids. Al barked, “I don’t want them wearing those old clothes!”
“They’re going to be playing outside,” Dee explained. “I don’t want them to get their nice clothes dirty.”
“He hit Dee hard in the face,” Camila remembers. “I started crying, but she told me, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be okay.’ My husband told Al that if he ever hit Dee again that he’d beat him up.” Al backed down when Gary challenged him. But Gary couldn’t always be there to protect his sister-in-law, and Al didn’t change his ways. Sometimes Dee feared Al, sometimes she pitied him, and too often, she blamed herself for making him angry.
One of the most traumatic moments of Camila’s life was identifying her sister after the accident. She recognized her only by her hair style and was still reeling from the shock when her family gathered at the hospital. The ambulance had brought Dee there, even though she hadn’t survived. “My little nieces wanted to know where Dee was,” remembers Camila. “I tried to comfort them and said, ‘Dee passed away. She’s in Heaven now.’ ”
“Don’t lie to them!” Ruthie Anne snarled. “She is in Hell!”
Camila stared at her mother. How could she say such a horrible thing about her own daughter? Why couldn’t she forgive her, even in death? Did she really believe that kind hearted Dee was in a place so horrible that their mother had had to scratch the word for it off the record album cover?
Camila was overwhelmed with grief over the loss of her sister, and it hurt even more when the facts came to light. She alleges that her sister’s tragic death was not covered in the news and that Troy Samuels faced no criminal charges because his family was influential in the Kalamazoo community. “The Samuels were from Illinois. Troy was not allowed to drive there because of his seizures. They moved to Michigan so that he could get a driver’s license, and he lied on the application about his medical condition.”
Dee’s family sued the negligent driver. “My mother asked for $50,000, and the settlement was to go to Dee’s children. But Troy’s attorney stood up in court and said my sister wasn’t worth anything.” Camila was standing near the attorney, and when she heard him make his callous statement, she was so infuriated, “I smacked him in the face.”
Troy’s insurance company settled for $20,000, but it’s unknown if the money was set aside for Dee’s kids. Grandma Ruthie Anne and two of Dee’s sisters wanted to adopt the kids, but the social workers refused to allow any of them to see the children again. Dee’s sisters claim that Troy Samuels continued to drive and worked delivering beverages for his parents’ business. Dee’s sister, Victoria, ran into him once at the grocery store when he was making a delivery via his van. “He was so shocked to see me, he dropped the case of drinks he was carrying.” Dee’s family is understandably bitter about her fate, but no documentation has been found to prove or disprove their allegations.
Victoria was the last to glimpse Shanna Kay and George. Weeks after Dee’s death, Victoria was at a Kalamazoo bowling alley when she heard the sweet peal of children’s voices, calling “Aunt Victoria!” She turned to see Shanna Kay and George, running toward her, their faces lit with joy. The children threw their arms around her knees, but an angry woman was right behind them and roughly grabbed the kids by their arms, “yanking them away.” She spoke harshly to Victoria, “You stay away from them!”
Victoria stood frozen, dumbfounded, as her niece and nephew were dragged away. The children were sobbing and must have been so confused. Their entire family had vanished from their lives, and they had been so excited to see their aunt. Victoria assumed that the hostile woman was the children’s new foster mom, but there hadn’t been time to ask questions. Victoria never saw the kids again.
If Alva Jenkins tried to get custody of the motherless children, Camila and Victoria never heard about it. Despite his alcoholic stupor, he surely must have