In one room lay Mylisa Townsend, a 23-year-old mother of two, with a gunshot wound to the head. In another lay her longtime boyfriend, Vashuan Peterson, fatally shot in the neck.
Left behind were two survivors: an infant and a 3-year-old, the older of whom broke the horrific news of his parents’ deaths to a relative who called to check on the family this morning.
” said Jeanetta Culpepper,.“He said, ‘My mama’s dead,’ Townsend’s mother.
The case was the second double homicide in west Detroit in less than 12 hours in which youngsters were found alone with the bodies of their slain mothers and mothers’ boyfriends.
On Monday night, two other children — ages 6 and 8 — were in a home in the 19300 block of Glastonbury when 27-year-old Monica Botello and 26-year-old Purcell Carson were gunned down.
After the shooting, the 8-year-old called 911 to report that her mother and mother’s boyfriend had been killed, said Detroit police spokesman John Roach.
In both cases, the juveniles were carefully questioned by specially trained interviewers in hopes they can help police catch the killers.
“My grandson is actually the only witness,” Culpepper told reporters as police scoured the two-story brick home that Townsend and Peterson had shared in the 12300 block of Santa Rosa.
“He’s pretty smart,” Culpepper said. “He should be able to tell them something.”
Deputy Chief James Tolbert said it’s challenging to have children as witnesses.
“They see things differently, their perception of time and volume is different,” he said. “You have to lay some foundations, get a base line of measurement, to see how they think before you take what they say and apply it in our reality.”
The specialists who interview the children are part of a program called Kids-TALK, a collaboration of law enforcement, Wayne County Children’s Protective Services, Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and the medical and mental health community.
“The questioning is done in a non-leading and non-suggestive way so that it is designed to get to the truth,” said Wayne County Prosecutor spokeswoman Maria Miller, who declined comment on the two cases.
Tolbert said the four children immediately were put in the care of Child Protective Services, which will determine where they are placed.
Outside of the Santa Rosa home today, family members wailed and embraced in the streets as police combed the area.
Some said they suspected the couple had been killed for money, as Peterson had recently cashed a tax refund check.
Culpepper said her husband, Wilbert Culpepper, went to the home and discovered the bodies after the 3-year-old told a relative that his mother was dead.
Culpepper said she’s lost.
“We don’t know what happened,” she said. “Only my grandson knows.”
People with information on either case can anonymously text “DPD” to 847411, followed by a tip.
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