Chronicles of a Murder We know what you
did that summer
…
By G Edward Lee
"My daddy hurt mommy he sit on her face, Mimi hurt my mommy, my daddy’s mommy, and Tara hurt Mommy. Daddy hurt her arm. Daddy bad. Daddy kill my mommy."
Blessed with child
After numerous miscarriages the Lord gave her Jodeci. Twenty-two years later people with dark souls extinguished her light. This is the saga of a mother’s two year odyssey to achieve justice for her murdered daughter, Jodeci Bush. In doing so, she’ll also secure it for Kayla Mills.
To the murderers neither of the women, Jodeci nor Kayla were worthy of living. Daylan Ward and his ilk felt it an affront that Jodeci was seeking child support and sole custody of their son.
Daylan Ward cared very little for his child, De’Veon; he just did not want to pay child support to the woman who birthed him.
Kayla Mill’s sister, Conny Waldrum’s motivations were out of pure greed and sibling jealousy. The rest, well; only time will tell. Regardless of their motivations, two young women who were in the prime of their lives are not with us because others made a conscious and deliberate decision to remove them from this world.
Mrs. Gilliam would soon find out that fighting for justice is an uphill battle. She finds herself up against an intransigent police department with years of racial and cultural biases.
A county prosecuting attorney’s office with no interest at all in pursuing drug related deaths, and even more so in this particular case, because some in the prosecutor’s office, to put it bluntly, had a bad taste in their mouths towards Kayla.
And then, there is the local media, whose coverage of drug deaths had become cookie-cutting reporting. You read and hear the same phrases as...
Police respond.
Paramedics attempted to revive.
Cause of death unknown.
Evidence of drug use.
It is cut and paste journalism. All they do is change the dates, names and byline. The term Investigative Journalism is not one associated with the hometown media.
This search to bring her murderers to justice started the day Jodeci’s body was carried from the apartment adjacent to her grandmother’s house.
Mrs. Gilliam, along with family and friends, has been mounting an on-going investigation that would serve as a road map to solving the murders.
At the time of these murders Mrs. Gilliam made it clear in this statement to the press. That they were not what they appeared to be.” She said…
I understand that in this area there are so many drug-related deaths, and I understand how easy it would be to write this off as one of them. However, I know Jodeci and Kayla’s death were not accidental nor were they self-inflicted. No one seems to be looking further than the drugs and money.
Here, we will lay out what took place and those involved. We’ll chronicle our interaction with law enforcement and highlight miscues.
All avenues are being pursued to get justice.
It is our belief that once our story is out in the public, fair minded people of goodwill will join us in our efforts to achieve justice for Jodeci.
The Plot
The plot germinated in late 2017 and the conspirators meet sometime in early spring of 2018. An upcoming custody hearing was on the horizon. A plan to avoid paying child support and to get sole custody was needed. Periodically they would communicate face-to-face. Other times it was by way of electronics. The pivotal question discussed during these meetings was “How can we show her to be an unfit mother?” They settled upon an insidious plan to use the local opioid crisis to disguise the murders. During this time West Virginia had an overdose rate of 58 deaths per 100,000 residents. Wheeling’s rate was the highest in the entire state. Law enforcement and the medical examiner’s office had become overwhelmed. So a policy was established that offered relief...
If the deceased has 3 or more types of illicit drugs in their blood, a homicide investigation would not be necessary.
The conspirators would make sure this would be their findings. They were confident that the deaths would be chalked up as just another statistic. It was at this stage of the plot that the dehumanization and devaluation of Jodeci and Kayla begins.
Its architect is Karen Ward, a manipulative and dangerous woman. In 2017 she and son Daylan involved Jodeci in an insurance fraud scheme in order to tarnish her in the eyes of the custody court. They were hoping to use it to compromise her later.
Jodeci’s mother found out about it but was not able to influence Karen’s malicious plan. When she confronts Karen about the scheme, Karen responded by saying,
“If Jodeci changes her story now the insurance company will get her for fraud.” She went on to tell Mrs. Gilliam in a smart aleck tone,
“….as a matter of fact. The twenty-five hundred dollars I got from the insurance company went to my child custody lawyer.”
Karen had Jodeci and her mother stuck between a rock and a hard place. Mrs. Gilliam and Jodeci now understood just how ruthless Karen was.
An avid fan of TV crime shows, Karen fancies herself as criminally savvy and intellectually astute. At the final meeting Karen assured her fellow conspirators that the plan to use drugs to show Jodeci’s unfitness as a mother would work. They would proceed as planned.
The Unconscionable Murderers
These are the nine people connected to, or have knowledge of, the murders of two young black women in the wee hours of the night on June 5th, 2018.
They are; Tracey Waldrum, Marie Lopez, Max Goff, Rikki ‘R’ Ingram, Conny Waldrum, Daylan Ward, Karen Ward, Brad Ward and Tara Ward.
The killings took place at 17 North Penn Street. All but Tracey Waldrum and Marie Lopez are in the vicinity of the murder scene. There are four parked cars with a total of 6 people in them.
Two of the cars were in a position to observe one of their victims, Kayla Mills, standing on the porch of the apartment she shares with her sister Conny Waldrum. A few hours earlier Kayla had purchased some drugs from Conny’s cousin Tracey Waldrum. The drugs turned out to be “whack”. She’s on her burner cell phone trying to rectify it. From her hand gestures and body language she appears agitated, pacing back and forth on the porch and going in and out of the apartment.
In the apartment is Jodeci Bush, her son De’Veon Bush and her uncle’s girlfriend Randi.
Jodeci was the other person they came to do bodily harm to. Her two year old son was supposed to be with his grandmother, but sometime before 9:30 that evening, Jodeci calls her mother to tell her she was going to keep the baby. She asks her mother to bring a jacket because his dad wanted to see him. Mrs. Gilliam would remember musing to herself that Daylan must be in town.
The seventh conspirator is concealed in a downstairs apartment. Earlier in the day she had provided its tenant with her choice of drugs to use the apartment for a few hours.
It gave her the ability to monitor the comings and goings of the upstairs unit.
It was getting late. Randi says it’s time to get home… which is next door at Jodeci’s grandmothers. It is 2:45 a.m. when she leaves. Kayla is still outside on her phone. Randi says good night as she passes her on the way down the stairs. As she begins to mount the steps to her house, she looked up to the apartment and noted that Kayla was no longer on the porch.
With Randi gone and Kayla inside it was time to move. The downstairs conspirator, Kayla’s sister Conny Waldrum exits the apartment and goes upstairs with Kayla and Jodeci.
She kicks it with them for a minute or two then goes to her bedroom. After about an hour or so Jodeci, the baby and Kayla are asleep. It is now 3:55 am.
Conny unlocks the door and summons in the murderers. Unbeknown to Kayla, two of the people she was communicating with about purchasing more drugs had been observing her for some time. They exit the car and walk several hundred feet before making their way up the stairs. Others have joined.
Max Goff turns the door knob and enters. Behind him are Rikki ‘R’ Ingram, Daylan Ward, Karen Ward, Brad Ward and Tara Ward. It is approximately 4:00 am. Both Jodeci and Kayla are overpowered by the group.
Brad and Max attacked and subdued Kayla. Dragging her out of the bed they cover her mouth, pin her to the floor and inject her with the lethal mixture. Keeping her pinned until there was no more resistance. Her autopsy would later reveal her fentanyl rate was 17 times of what it would take to kill a human being.
Jodeci is sleeping on her stomach. Daylan grabs her by the hair and pulls her off the bed. Her screams wakes the baby. Jodeci struggles to get free and is smacked and punched by Karen, Tara and Conny. The baby is terrified and crying trying to get to his mother. Tara tosses him back on the bed. Jodeci’s top is ripped off by Karen. Daylan body slams her to the floor then straddles her. His mother Karen and his two sisters, Conny and Tara do their best to keep Jodeci’s arm still while Daylan injects her. The lethal hotshots were courtesy of Brad Ward. What a dark and grim family affair it is.
The drugs incapacitated the girls. The realization of what just happened filled the room causing some to show panic. They would spend an hour or more attempting to rid the apartment of any incriminating evidence. They stripped both bodies of its jewelry. They took their identifications; Jodeci’s ripped top, and 90% of all their personal clothing, as well as the bedding.
They would take Kayla’s "burner cell phone", but leave both of their regular phones. They removed the drugs and the syringes used to administer the deadly injections. They leave behind a little cocaine residual for appearances, along with a small stack of bills and a single bill that was used for snorting. Satisfied that they covered all the bases they are ready to leave until Karen has an idea.
She recalls a scene from a crime show where the timeline was thrown off because the victims had texted each other when they were supposed to have been dead. She instructs Conny and Tara to get the girls cell phones and to text each other. The messages were sent between 4:45 am and 5:00 am. The girls have already been dead for an hour. They would exit the apartment in intervals so as to not draw the attention of a large group…. the last one leaves at 5:08 am.
Conny and the traumatized baby remain in the apartment. De’Veon is crying uncontrollably in his attempt to get to his mother. Conny carries him to her room and consoles him until he falls asleep. She has been tasked with discovering and reporting the bodies. Some seven hours later, she will call 911.
The Discovery
The baby is asleep in Conny’s bed. Unable to sleep herself, she has been re-living what happened in the other room just hours ago. She makes a conscious decision not to look in the direction of the bedroom where her sibling and Jodeci are lying unresponsive. She is frighten and confused because now she has to account for De’Veon. Her task was simple. Walk in, find the bodies, and call 911. The baby’s presence complicated things… he wasn’t supposed to be here.
Up against the clock and being pressured by her cohorts, they come up with an alternative plan that would get the baby out of the house, allowing her to follow through with the original plan. At 9:30 a.m. she executes her revised plan. She goes next door to Jodeci’s grandmother’s house to ask Randi for Jodeci’s mom’s phone number. Once back at the apartment she calls Mrs. Gilliam at 9:56 am with her first lie, she says;
"Mrs. Deiona, Jodeci and Kayla went for a walk and the baby woke up crying, and I need to go to work."
Knowing Jodeci’s maternal acumen Mrs. Gilliam responds, “You’re lying. My daughter would never leave her son alone.” Conny says, “Well, I have to go to work, she says… I’ll take the baby to Randi.”
Conny stays next door for the 15 minutes it takes Mrs. Gilliam to arrive. She noticed that Conny did not have her work clothes on. She remains there on the porch, talking with Randi and Mrs. Gilliam for another 10 minutes. Tommy Bush, Mrs. Gilliam’s brother, is leaning up against his mother’s car parked in front of the house. Another 10 minutes elapses before Conny announces that she’ll be right back. She was going to get her car keys to take Randi to the store.
Fifteen minutes after Conny returned to her apartment, Tommy mention to his sister that a fire truck and EMT unit just pulled up in front of the apartment, but are just sitting there. Mrs. Gilliam guesses out loud that “….they are probably going to the elderly person’s apartment.” Tommy says, “No Sis, their looking up at Conny’s place.” They remained in the vehicles until a police unit shows up. When Jodeci’s mother seen the paramedic rush the stairs to the apartment, she found herself on his heels. To this day she does not recall how she made it to those stairs so quickly. She found herself directly behind him when he entered. The police racing behind her enters and tells her to leave. She says, “That’s my daughter lying there on the floor and why is she naked?”
She watches the paramedic remove his bag and kneel next to Jodeci. The officer is asking her if Jodeci has any medical problems, as Mrs. Gilliam is explaining Conny comes out of her bed room into the hall. When she sees Mrs. Gilliam she pretends to be crying. “Conny, what happened!?” yells Mrs. Gilliam. " I don’t know. Kayla isn’t breathing but Jodeci is” , replies Conny. The officer interrupts and escorts them to the porch. Standing on the porch is Conny and Kayla’s mother Rona, and her husband. Rona embraces Mrs. Gilliam saying she was sorry. She is somewhat confused by Rona’s words of sympathy for Jodeci, because Conny just told her she was breathing.
Mrs. Gilliam noted that she too was forcing tears. Her husband was the only one showing genuine emotions. Later Detective Farrell would comment about the family’s indifference to the death of Kayla, saying… “I have never seen anything like it. It was like watching a whole other family.” Authorities would spend four hours in the apartment before removing the bodies. The families were gathered by the Detective and informed that both were dead.
The announcement dashes all hope that Mrs. Gilliam and the family had that she would survive. After all, she was breathing according to Conny. The family is devastated and engulfed in grief and anguish. Prior to Mrs. Gilliam's brother seeing the rescue units show up, no one had seen Jodeci and Kayla return from their “so-called walk”. Conny’s story was beginning to fall apart. You would have to suspend reality to believe it. It’s obvious that the bodies were in the apartment all along.
Rewind – The Relationship
It is important at this point to provide some background about the dynamics of Jodeci Bush and Daylan Ward’s relationship. It was an on-again, off-again, and very volatile relationship. It began in early 2015 and ended late November of 2017. Jodeci gave birth to their son, De’Veon on March 14, 2016. Shortly afterwards Jodeci was diagnosed with postpartum depression, and received treatment until her death.
She lived with her mother and dad. They served as the primary caregivers for De’Veon. His father, Daylan, refused to provide any financial support. He justified shirking this responsibility by claiming Mr. and Mrs. Gilliam made enough to care for De’Veon, and that he needed to support his own mother. This refusal to take financial responsibility for his child would continue until after Jodeci’s death.
After basic training in November 2016 Daylan was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He promised Jodeci he would send for her and De’Veon and that they would be a family. This was music to Jodeci’s ears. She loved Daylan and wanted more than anything to be a family. Daylan and his mother, Karen manipulated Jodeci into giving him shared parenting. Telling her he needed it to get government housing on base. He would tell her she had to do this, or they could not be together. Vague threats like those were enough to keep her in line. The mother and son took advantage of Jodeci’s mental state, and her blind love for Daylan to get what they wanted.
They managed to turn Jodeci from her mother. Convincing her that, if she told her mother about the plans it would ruin everything. Jodeci kept the joint custody agreement to herself. His mother encouraged Daylan to use his charms to woo Jodeci until they could get custody of De’Veon. To ensure that Jodeci remained enamored with Daylan while away on duty, his mother, Karen had him send his letters for Jodeci to her house. This would give Karen opportunities to further manipulate her and advance the false narrative that there was a future for Jodeci and her son, Daylan. July 2017 Jodeci messages her cousin and tells her she received papers from Daylan saying he was filing for custody. However, if she agreed to give him shared parenting, the motion for sole custody would go away. She complied, and in November 2017 Daylan was granted shared parenting of their son.
Soon after Jodeci finds out that Daylan has a fellow soldier, Ann Moore, pregnant Jodeci is finally convinced that Daylan means her and De’Veon no good. After she found out about Ann, Jodeci came clean with her mother about the custody hearing, manipulation, and events that had led up to it. Ann Moore would give birth to Daylan’s daughter on January 7, 2018. They would marry eleven days later, January 18th, causing Jodeci to become overly distraught. Three days after the wedding, while discussing their disagreements over visitation, Daylan’s mother, informs Mrs. Gilliam of their plans to take sole custody of De’Veon stating; “I think we’ll go for it all.” That statement speaks volumes, because it illustrates just how long they had been planning to cause Jodeci bodily harm.
In February, 2018, Jodeci and her mom met with their Attorney and filed to abolish the shared parenting arrangement. Two hearings would be scheduled for June. The shared parenting arrangement on the 6th and the child support hearing on the 15th. Unhappy with what was transpiring; Daylan began threatening to file for sole custody of De’Veon. His threats and those of his mothers are no longer producing the same results. They no longer have control over her. They can no longer manipulate her. So…. they killed her!
What we know….
They died from what is believed to have been a drug overdose/possible homicide. Emphasis on “believed” because as of this date, Jodeci’s autopsy report is still pending. Kayla’s was released three months after their murders. There had been a lot of suspicious activities and inconsistencies in those involved in this crime. In the beginning Detective Ryan Ferrell of the Wheeling West Virginia Police; and Shawn Turak, the West Virginia Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney, believed that there was foul play. Now, going on two years since the deaths, it is apparent that those beliefs where just to appease the family.
This is what is known of those involved:
We know that these are the people who provided drugs to, or did drugs with, Kayla and Jodeci the evening of June 4th and in the am-hours of June 5, 2018. Tracey Waldrum, Conny Waldrum (Conny and Kayla are sisters), Max Goff, Rikki ‘R’ Ingram and Marie Lopez.
We know that Kayla described the drug Tracey sold her as “whack.” The drugs were given to her by Brad Ward (Daylan’s brother). We believe it was to be the original hotshot, but just gave them headaches and caused them to become nauseated.
Conny claimed she shared cocaine with them that evening. Whatever she shared with them that evening was something entirely different then what she herself snorted.
Kayla contacted Max Goff and Rikki ‘R’ Ingram and asked them to find something to help bring her and Jodeci down. Max and Rikki are also a stickup duel. Earlier that evening they too saw Jodeci flashing the money on Snapchat. They will keep their eyes open for opportunities.
Rikki ‘R’ Ingram reported that Kayla and Jodeci are ‘eye bulging” in appearance when he saw them. He claimed they only gave them a marijuana vape to bring them down. Kayla’s autopsy showed no marijuana in her system.
Marie Lopez did drugs with the girls that evening. She has information for drugs. We know what you did that summer …
We know that Brad Ward is a drug mover in the area. We know that he served up the concoction that killed them. This is how we know:
That Thanksgiving following their deaths a person we will call “Ghana”, was at a gathering in Bellaire, Ohio. She happened to be wearing a tee shirt with Jodeci’s image on it. As she passed two male Caucasians she heard the phrase “two black girls on the island”, followed by chuckling. She looked their way; one is drunk and one not so much. She zipped up her jacket, walks over and joins them. The conversation went like this:
Ghana
“Hey guys it sounds like all the fun is over here? What up, what was so funny?”
Drunk
“We were talking about how Jodeci and Kayla died.”
The Not So Drunk guy tries to change the subject. Ghana ignores him and continues.
Ghana
“Oh yeah, what’s so funny about the two girls OD'ing on the island?” They could have been your wives or sisters?”
Drunk
“No, no. It’s not like that. Did you know them?’
Ghana
“Yes, Jodeci was my cousin.”
Drunk
“Oh, we were laughing at how Brad and Daylan will probably get away with it.
Ghana
”What do you mean!?”
Drunk
“Well, Brad is the one who made the hotshot his brother Daylan used to kill them. We laughed about how they will probably get away with it. I mean, the police are too fucking dumb to catch them”
Ghana tries to keep him engaged but his buddy escorted him away. We know what you did that summer …
We know that Conny is a liar. She is an overly envious and jealous person, driven by greed and drugs. Known as the Queen of Cocaine, she has a proclivity for titles. She now bears two additional unscrupulous titles... Murderer; a person who commits murder, and Sororicidist; one who kills their own sister.
We know she snorted cocaine with Kayla and Jodeci around 12 midnight. Later Conny’s mother claimed that (Conny) worked the night before and didn’t get home until 5:00 am. If that’s the case, why was 911 not called until around 10:50 am? Conny claimed that during that time, she had been in and out of her room and even in her sister’s room and hadn’t seen the girls. She had called at 9:56 am on the 5th to tell Mrs. Gilliam to come get her grandson because the girls had left for a walk and Conny claimed she needed to get to work that morning.
In order to believe Conny one would have to suspend reality. When taking into account the size and layout of the apartment (which couldn’t be more than 400 square feet), it is impossible for Conny to have not noticed the bodies lying on the floor in the doorway to Kayla’s room. She would have seen them when she came home from work, when she went to her bedroom, when she left her bedroom to check on De’Veon in the morning when he was screaming. She would have had to step over them to get De’Veon to take him out of Kayla’s bedroom and to the house next door. There is no way possible she was not fully aware that they were dead the entire time she was home.
Mrs. Gilliam asked the EMT who worked on Jodeci, why he didn’t administer Narcan. His response was, “Ms. your daughter was already cold. She was dead. I’m sorry.” This contradicts what Conny told Mrs. Gilliam about Jodeci still breathing. And Jodeci could have very well been breathing like Conny said; she just waited until she died before alerting authorities. Add to this, we know that Conny was in the downstairs apartment she subleased for drugs from it's tenant Marcie. Conny was not at work.
Kayla had been keeping a backpack filled with thirty-five thousand dollars for an incarcerated friend. We know that in the past Conny had stolen from it twice. The first time it was for five-hundred dollars, then twenty-five hundred dollars the second time. We know that in the middle of this murder crime scene, Conny picked up that backpack stuffed with almost thirty-five thousand dollars, ducked under the yellow police tape, and left with her mother Ronda following in her car. Once Jodeci’s mother started questioning Conny’s movements and actions on the day of and before the murders, she moved from Wheeling to Atlanta, Georgia. The move was so sudden she left all of her possessions including the furniture.
Conny claims she does not know who Daylan is, but we know that to be a lie as well. We know that on December 12, 2018, Max Goff was conversing with a person close to the Jodeci's family. Max's phone rings and when he pulls it from his pocket Daylan’s photo is on the screen. When he answered the call Daylan voice could be heard on the other end asking for Conny’s number, saying he had to get a hold of her. Conny had already moved to Georgia at this point. We know what you did that summer …
Daylan
We know that Daylan is a liar. He didn’t fall too far from the proverbial tree. He is a mama’s boy, manipulative, vindictive, and cruel.
It goes without saying that Daylan had a special hatred in his heart for Kayla. Her lifestyle was something he did not agree with. He felt manless in her presence because of his inability to compete with Kayla. Her relationship with Jodeci and therefore his son caused him to harbor toxic feelings toward her. An example of how much he despised her took place at a graduation event on May 20, 2018.
Jodeci and Kayla were taking a picture with De’Veon. He was in between them being kissed on each cheek. Daylan witnessed the kiss and exploded with a sudden gush of fury and vitriol toward Kayla. In the ugliest and nastiest tone he told her to never put her mouth on his son again. When she didn’t feed into his assault, his anger and disgust heightened. Unable to do what he really wanted to do… and that is strike her, he makes a mean-mugged-face, stares her up and down and says in a slow threatening monotone voice; “Yeah… I got you bitch! I got you!”
Jodeci described the incident to her mother. It was a side she had seen before. She said “he can be really ugly at times.” When her mother advised about being careful, Jodeci’s response was, “Mom, he would never hurt me or De’Veon.” We now know she was tragically mistaken in her belief that he was a decent human being. The day after the murders, Daylan’s inherited traits were on full display. He shows up at Mrs. Gilliam’s home begging to take De’Veon for a couple of hours. He said he was heading back to Louisiana and wanted to spend some time with him. Understanding of his request she agrees.
Late in returning De'Veon, Mrs. Gilliam calls Daylan. He informs her that he is not returning him, and he was filing for sole custody, advising her to get a lawyer, then hung up. Mrs. Gilliam is emotionally depleted. Her daughter was just killed and now her grandson is taken under false pretext. Knowing what we know now, the callus insensitivity Daylan showed that day toward a grieving mother and family is very much indicative of a heartless murderer.
Fast forward….
Daylan returned De’Veon. A custody battle ensued. On January 2, 2020 Magistrate granted Daylan sole custody, with visitation rights for Mrs. Gilliam. The Decision is being appealed.
Daylan would like for us to believe that he didn’t arrive in Wheeling until June 6, 2018.
On May 31, 2019, while at the courthouse for a hearing, Detective Ferrell took Daylan to a room and asked him a few questions. Detective Ferrell expressed concern over Daylan’s refusal to give a direct answer to questions such as:
· When did you arrive in the area?
· What air carrier did you fly with; and what airports did you go in and out of?
Daylan responded that he took 3 flights and could not remember. His attempt to hide his timeline was obvious to Detective Ferrell.
We know Daylan was in town on the fourth of June. This fact we can easily prove with a screenshot showing the date and time stamp on the Snapchat page featuring him. We know that he was in the apartment at 17 North Penn Street at the time of the murders. We know this thanks to his son, De’Veon.
During the few times Mrs. Gilliam visited with De’Veon, she noticed he started acting strange. He would eat food off the floor like a dog, flinch at loud noises, put himself in the corner, have night terrors, and moments of anger. None of these behaviors were present when he lived with her. He would have panic attacks when told he had to go back to Daylan’s.
During one of the visits, Mrs. Gilliam observed that De’Veon began muttering to himself. When she started repeating back to him what she could make out of what he was saying, he realized she was listening, and began talking in earnest:
"My daddy hurt mommy he sit on her face, Mimi hurt my mommy, my daddy’s mommy, and Tara hurt Mommy. Daddy hurt her arm. Daddy bad. Daddy kill my mommy."
This is from the mouth of a baby. We have multiple videos shot over the last 8 months, of him saying the same thing over and over.
De’Veon identified these people in the apartment….
- Daylan (his dad)
- Tara Ward (Daylan sister, whom De'Veon calls "Tara")
- Karen Ward (Mimi, Daylan's mother)
- De'Veon calls both Tara Ward and his aunt Damita "Tara". His comments are about Tara Ward
Daylan also knew that his son was talking about what he witnessed. He didn’t know if we knew, so he tried to get out ahead of it. The day of Jodeci’s wake, Daylan and his brother Brad were sitting outside in the rear of the funeral home smoking a blunt and talking about their post-murder strategies. They’re satisfied that talk around town is that they OD’d. They are concern about Conny, believing her to be the weak link in the chain. This is probably why Conny suddenly abandoned her apartment, with all of her worldly goods, and moved to Atlanta Georgia. Daylan mentions to his brother that De’Veon is trying to talk about what he saw that night. He’s saying names, but he’s hard to understand.
Mrs. Gilliam is inside the funeral home at her daughter’s casket. She gets a call from Daylan asking her to please not take De’Veon up to the casket. He was concern that the baby might have nightmares. Mrs. Gilliam felt that it was a reasonable request and thoughtful of him to think of it. A month later she finds out that Daylan’s act of fatherly concern wasn’t for De’Veon’s mental well-being. It was to avoid being exposed by his son. Daylan is hearing that there are audio and video of De’Veon talking. He calls his mother worried. She understands the ramifications of this, after all, she too was there. She suggests a preemptive move through the courts. Mrs. Gilliam receives a court order from the Juvenile Court, signed by the Magistrate approving Daylan’s request that she “....was not permitted to take De’Veon to any doctor for medical or psychological care during court ordered visits with him.” Some would call this consciousness of guilt?
It’s interesting to note that during the course of Daylan’s relationship with Jodeci, she spent days upon days of quality-time at his mother’s home. It is telling that to this day, Karen Ward, one of the maternal grandmothers of De’Veon, has not uttered one word of condolences, nor shown any empathy or sympathy toward the other maternal grandmother. Some would also call this consciousness of guilt.
The videos have been shared with, and shown to anyone who could help in both the murder investigation, and the custody hearings. The video has been seen by:
· Detective Ferrell of Wheeling Police Dept.
· Ohio County Prosecutor, Attorney, Shawn Turak.
· Belmont County Courts Ohio Magistrate, Mary Busic.
· U.S. Attorney’s Office; Military Criminal Investigations Department (CID)
· Harmony/R.O.O.T.S, Harmony House; Children’s Advocacy Center
Everyone who has viewed and listened to the videos walked away disturbed and convinced of its authenticity and credibility. The night before the final custody hearing, the Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney, Shawn Turak, issued a statement to Belmont County Court. She reminded them that she had previously suggested and requested that De’Veon be forensically interviewed by a trained professional. She writes, that,
“…. after viewing one of the videos of De’Veon talking about the night his mother died, she believes he has information concerning the manner of his mother's death.”
The Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center also wrote a letter on the family’s behalf. They stated the;
“….after reviewing the videos of De’Veon on Mrs. Gilliam’s phone, it is our medical opinion that he be evaluated immediately for Psychiatric care. De’Veon shows signs of trauma related to PTSD.”
The Magistrate would rule that the video had no bearing on the case. We continue to push for a legal remedy to get De’Veon evaluated. We know what you did that summer …
The Investigation… for the lack of a better word.
Today’s law enforcement has a vast variety of investigative techniques and tools for solving crimes. Twenty-first century technology has provided them the means to; ping cell phone towers for data. Collect and process DNA. Track your movements via GPS. Search your social media accounts, phone records, text messages, emails, and forensically dissect your hard drive.
Add this to the standard techniques of collecting material evidence, dusting for prints, questioning suspects/witnesses and verifying their stories/alibis. These tools combined, represent a formidable arsenal of tools for law enforcement. That is, if they are utilized.
The family sincerely believes Jodeci’s killers would be behind bars today if not for the utter lack of skilled professionals with titles of ‘Detective’ within the Wheeling Police Department. Seriously, they did nothing one would recognize as a murder investigation.
Initially assigned to the case was Detective Ryan Ferrell. He spoke with five people.
Conny Ward, outside the apartment the day she reported the bodies. He inquired of her whereabouts that night and where she went after she left his crime scene. What she tells him isn't what she told Mrs. Gilliams. Detective Ferrell did not follow up.
He spoke with Rikki ‘R’ Ingram at the regional jail. Rikki “R” and Max are also known as stickup boys. They too seen the snapchat of Jodeci making it rain with the $35,000. Both were at the apartment around midnight the night of the murders. Rikki tells the detective that when he last seen Kayla and Jodeci, they were “bugged eyed” and alive.
Max Goff was also interviewed. He would tell the detective what he already knew, that Kayla and Jodeci were high. Detective Ferrell did not follow up.
Marie Lopez was in the presence of Kayla and Jodeci during the course of the evening. She calls Mrs. Gilliam two weeks after the deaths. She offers to tell her anything she wants to know about Jodeci in exchange for oxycodone. Outraged Mrs. Gilliam told her what she thought of her and hung up. She would report it to Detective Ferrell. He interviews Marie and she denies everything. He did not follow up.
And finally, he spoke with Daylan Ward at the courthouse. Attempting to establish a timeline around the time of the murders, he questioned him about his travel itinerary. Daylan wasn’t forthcoming. Said he did not know what airlines he took to get from Louisiana to home. Said he changed planes 3 times. Detective Ferrell did not follow up.
What is ironic is that these same investigative tools the family has begged Detective Ferrell to employ to solve these murders, are the same ones he used when he received an accommodation with media fanfare in 2017. Detective Ferrell solved a murder case with the use of social media accounts and phone records. We would like to know why the deaths of these two young black women did not deserve that same professional courtesy and investigative due diligence?
On December 30, 2019 Mrs. Gilliam learned that Detective Ferrell was promoted and transferred out of the detective division. That Sgt. Robert Safreed was the commander of the detective division and that she needed to schedule a meeting with him. We find out later that Detective Ferrell was demoted to uniform and was working the night shift at the hospital. Why they felt the need to lie about Detective Ferrell’s status has not been overlooked by us.
In February 2019 Detective Robert O’Connell had taken over the case. When he entered the room you sensed his mental and physical laziness. His attitude and demeanor suggested he had no interest whatsoever. At one point he commented that, “Seems to me that everyone in that house was on drugs except for the baby”. Obviously, the remark was not made to comfort a grieving family. It was made from a place of disdain, which makes it okay for those of his ilk to devalue and minimize them as human beings.
He viewed Mrs. Gilliam as just a grieving mother looking to blame someone. The mental and physical laziness we detected manifested itself later in the meeting.
Prior to Detective O’Connell taking over the case, Mrs. Gilliam had asked Detective Ferrell to find out why Jodeci was naked from the waist up. Detective O’Connell said that he had investigated it himself. That the uniform officers on the scene, Officer’s Brantley and Skinner, told him that paramedics probably cut her shirt off so that they could work on her and administered NARCAN. He seemed proud that he delivered that bit of information. The explanation seemed rational enough, but not so in this situation. Jodeci’s’ top was already off and missing from the room when the paramedics arrived. Had Detective O’Connell spoken directly with the paramedics who responded that day, they would have informed him that she was already shirtless. After enlightening him of this fact, he leaned back in his chair looking somewhat deflated. Instead of delivering us facts, he provides hypotheticals. We still don’t know what happened to the missing items. The family has absolutely no confidence in his abilities. If Detective O’Connell’s is conducting an investigation we know nothing of it.
We now know that Prosecuting Attorney Shawn Turak has been resistant to investigating these deaths from the beginning. As the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia highlighted, prosecutors arbitrarily pick and choose who they arrest and don't.
We thought that of all the information we provided her office and the police, that surely something was useful. We later find out that Kayla Mills had a history of confrontations over the years with this office. We have witnesses who have heard prosecutors, as well as detectives, verbally expressed their personal disdain for her. This raises questions of conflict, bias, and prosecutorial misconduct. More importantly, it raises questions about the office’s motives for not aggressively pursuing justice in this case. If their mindset is that Kayla Mills doesn’t deserve justice, then that makes Jodeci Bush collateral damage. This is unacceptable to the family.
