Till Death Parts Us

I had hung all the flyers, I had talked to all the people, there was only one thing left to do.

Meadow Brook Acres was a community that was mostly mobile homes, and it was secluded by trees and over grown brush and trees, and it known for crime, drugs. robbery, rape, and yes, even murder.

"Go into the place, that felt like death"

No, I didn't belong there, and I was taking my life in my own hands by walking in there. Law enforcement told me not to go in there, Detective Turner even offered to take me in there himself, but no this is something I had to do on my own terms, something I had to do alone.

I knew the name of the street that my baby died on, it was on his death certificate, but I had to see the exact place for myself. On the death certificate it said, "Grey's Lane", but where exactly was that?

We saw the sign, that said "Meadowbrook acres, and I got a knot in the pit of my stomach and nausea crept up on me and I wanted to open the door and vomit, but I was warned to keep my doors locked in this area. We turned onto Stevenson Road, and it dawned on me, just how secluded this place was, and I again started reaching for my door, to empty my stomach on their roadway.

A voice came, it was my husband that was driving, "You wanted to come in this rat infested hole, and you promised me you were going to keep the doors locked. I grabbed my stomach, and I fought back the nausea that was giving me the urge to vomit.

Going Into The Zone

We drove straight, and I was nervous and anxious and everything that went with it, and finally off of Stevenson Road, I saw a sign with a street name "Greys Lane". Turn here I said to my husband, make a left, and we turned on to the street, my son was murdered on. He wasn't the first man to be murdered in this Park Of Death, and he unfortunately wasn't the last.

We drove down Grey's Lane until I saw a mobile home that looked like the photo on the news broadcast, and I got out and just stared, at the driveway that he died in. I felt like the whole world turned as I looked at the driveway, and I thought of, what it looked like the night of the murder.My mind wandered to picture him with blood all over his upper torso, and fragments of glass all over his body, of the broken window the bullets went through to his body.

The Murder Scene

A Car Driving By - Stopped

A white late model care slowed down and pulled to a stop right before me. My heart pounded with fear, but you didn't show fear, not at all, not in this place. As he rolled down his window, he had a scowl on his face, and I broke in a sweat, but I reminded myself, you didn't show fear, not in Meadowbrook Acres.

He asked, with a cocky arrogance that made your skin crawl, “What the hell are you doing here? You don’t belong here.”

“I certainly don’t. However, my blood was spilled here, and until I find out who did it, this place belongs to me.” I was trembling inside, however I reminded myself, you didn’t show any fear, not in the place I would eventually name the "Park of Death".

My son didn't belong in this sewer pit of a place either. I was shocked to see what the driveway looked like that he died in.

For a moment I stood there in a daze, kind of like I was in shock. I knew I didn't belong here either. However, in the moment, I was thinking about how my son had felt.

First he took a shoulder shot, he instictively put his right hand over the wound, and then he took his right hand and tried to get the hell out of there. However, he didn't have a chance, the barrage of bullet that would follow not only took his life, but it took mine. I would never be the same with out him in this world. He was not only my son, but my very best friend.

I was in the zone for a moment looking at the driveway in which my son, took his last breath, and I could literally hear glass shattering as the killer fired off 15 bullets and emptied the clip, twelve of them entered my son's body, and took his life.

I heard him gasp his last breath, and then I turned to vomit, at long last.

A black man who lived across the street, came out, and he said what are you doing here? You don't live here, and you don't belong here. I agreed with him about belong here, but explained to him about my son being murdered in the driveway across the street, and he said he remembered the night. I asked him if he saw anyone, and he said he hit the floor, and that no one belonged here really.

I wondered exactly what my college educated son was doing here in the rat invested place, and then I remembered the day before his death.

He said to me, a Delaware Police Sgt, came in the restuarant where he worked. My son used to make him pizzas every Friday night, for his daughters. He said this Sgt was going to help him get visitation for his step-daughter whom he loved with all his heart. I told him "Why would he do that honey?" He said, " you don't get nothing for nothing Mom." "What does that mean," I asked him? He said never mind, it is my daughter and my case. I wondered if that had anything to do with him being here.

You see Rick's wife Mandy, died at 26 years old, just one year and seven months earlier.Her Aunt had taken her when Rick was saying goodbye to his wife at the funeral home and he was determined to get his step-daughter back. He was the only one that could get legal custody, of her, her Aunt could only get guardianship of her, which she already had.

I wondered, about what my son had told me about the Sargent the night before his death, had anything to do with why he was there.

No, my son shouldn't have come in here.

I had to come here to find justice

And the Sargent who came in the pizza palor, where did he fit into all this.

This was the exact flyer we had designed and made up, and we came in this park, many times after that. this is the accused killer of Richard L Jacobs Jr.

We had gone in that park, multiple times before we hung the above flyer. The Delaware State Police and the US Marshals both developed a suspect.

Still the lingering thought of why my son was in that park, haunted me. His words still echoed in my ears.

"You don't get nothing for nothing Mom. It's my case and my daughter, I will handle it."

However, did his association with the Sargent and his ambition to see his step-daughter...............

Cost him his life.??..........................

The Sgt. left the scene of the brutal murder, to go back to the office to run Identification, something that is never done, by police officers.

What was Richard doing in the park that night?

The Sgt. stopped talking to Richard's mother, during her investigation, and didn't even send someone out to her house, to inform her Anthony McDonald was found dead.

There was no drugs found in Richard's system, at the time of his death.

What do you think happened??

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