Jahessye Shockley's Family Claims Police Let Race, Mom's Criminal Past, Stand In Way Of Search

PHOENIX -- Nearly two weeks after a 5-year-old girl seemingly vanished outside her suburban Phoenix home, police were no closer Monday to figuring out what happened to her as her family criticized the investigation.

Jahessye Shockley has been missing since Oct. 11 after police believe she wandered from her apartment in Glendale, outside Phoenix, while her mother was running an errand. The girl's three older siblings were the last to see her.

Police have no evidence, suspects or promising leads, but the case points to a kidnapping because they found no trace of her after combing a 3-mile radius around her home.

"This little girl doesn't just fall off the face of the earth," Glendale police Sgt. Brent Coombs said Monday.

More than 100 officers and volunteers have looked in pools, garbage bins, and shrubs, interviewed and searched the homes of registered sex offenders in the area, and stopped at every door to spread news about the disappearance.

But Jahessye's family said that they don't believe that police have given her disappearance enough attention because she's black and her mother has a criminal history.

"We feel that law enforcement is not active in finding Jahessye and that they're more active in persecuting me instead of finding out where she is," said Jerice Hunter, Jahessye's mother.

In October 2005, Hunter and her then-husband George Shockley were arrested in California in a child abuse case. Hunter pleaded no contest to corporal punishment and served about four years in prison before she was released on parole in May 2010. Hunter's oldest child, 14 at the time, told police that his mother routinely beat the children.

George Shockley is a convicted sex offender and is still in a California prison.

Hunter condemned members of the media at a demonstration for her daughter on Monday at the state capitol in Phoenix, saying that they're too focused on her past and that she didn't know Shockley was a sex offender until his arrest.

State Child Protective Services removed Hunter's three other children from her home following Jahessye's disappearance but refused to say why.

Glendale police say that Hunter, who is eight months pregnant, is not a suspect and that police had nothing to do with the state's decision to take the children.

Jahessye's grandmother, Shirley Johnson, has said that Hunter changed after her release from prison and loves her children.

"I have been forthcoming with law enforcement from day one. I let them turn my home into a crime scene hours after I reported that I couldn't find my daughter," she said. "They didn't find anything, but they're holding my children hostage."

Hunter was joined by about a dozen family and friends at the demonstration, during which they held up signs with Jahessye's photo and begged for Gov. Jan Brewer's attention on the case.

Coombs said that Jahessye's race has no effect on their efforts to find the girl and that the department has treated her family the same as they would treat any family in a missing child case – by repeatedly interviewing them for new details.

He said detectives are aware of Hunter's criminal record, but "it cannot cloud the issue or make them tunnel-visioned."

"They have to keep an open mind and look at every detail that comes in," he said.

Coombs has repeatedly said that the case is the department's No. 1 priority, that dozens of investigators were working the case and that the department would not stop until she's found. Detectives were focused on following tips from the public and going over the information they've collected so far, he said.

The department also has offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads them to Jahessye, on top of a $1,000 reward being offered by Arizona's Silent Witness tip line.

Coombs said that it's very important for the public to realize that Jahessye may not look the same as she does in pictures of her that have been released.

"If I were an abductor or someone who has possession of her and I want to remain anonymous and I want to move about easily, I would alter her appearance as much as I could, even to the point of making her look like a little boy," he said.

Jahessye's case has drawn comparisons to the 1999 case of another Arizona girl, 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs. Mikelle vanished on Jan. 2, 1999, as she waited for an ice cream truck near her family's home in Mesa; all that was left behind was a bicycle and two quarters. She remains missing.

Hunter said that she believes that Jahessye was kidnapped and pleaded for whoever took her to "bring my baby back home."

"This is ridiculous," she said. "The family is in turmoil. We want our child."

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SEE PHOTOS FROM THE SEARCH FOR JAHESSYE SHOCKLEY:

Comments

[Bob Pell]

11:02 PM on 12/21/2011

For god's sake will you please stop with the race krap already, everyone is sick of it.

[TheFlowerChild]

02:08 AM on 11/30/2011

What aggravates me is that the "Mother" has wasted law enforcement time, volunteers time and all efforts searching for her "missing" daughter when all along she knew she killed her daughter. The other children told the detectives exactly what happened and I hope they never let the "Mother" out of prison again.

[Stevie Ware]

02:43 AM on 11/22/2011

This just in: Mother Jerice Hunter arrested for child abuse and potentially facing murder charges.Told you so, told you so, told you so! Now watch all of the ignorant, race baiting, gender bashing intelligistia on HUFFPOST who supported this BEEEETCZH and her mom BLAMING the media and police for LACK of COVERAGE and RESCUE EFFORTS can live with the guilt of lending financial, emotional and moral support to a soon to be convicted child killer. Flip the switch and pay per view her eyeballs popping out of their sockets as she fries. Donate the proceeds to the NAACP so that they can afford to BUY a Fockey Huck of a CLUE! Please pray for all of the children of the world that they are protected every minute of every day and then TAKE ACTION to prevent child abuse! No one protected Jahessye Shockley...

[didbblejr]

09:52 PM on 11/08/2011

Since this story has not been featured lately I figured I would post this update. Seems as though CPS knows a lot more than the Grandmaother.

BTW- I am a caucassion who cares!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/11/01/20111101glendale-missing-girl-mom-gives-birth.html

[Stevie Ware]

12:34 PM on 11/02/2011

Hey @TYRANT357, Was it white tribal "kings" who sold black slaves to the ship captains? Was it white people who enslaved black africans to build the pyramids? All races play the "race card" as a result of genetic programming and a little thing called ethnocentricity. It is an element of our collective, human DNA that once served to protect the clan/tribe through a survival mechanism. Every race has at one time enacted its fair share of bigoted brutality and shown a propensity for the atrocities of racial slavery and genocide. The fact that post colonial caucasians appear to have cornered the market as the poster child for slavery is counterbalanced by the fact that they were also instrumental in ending its practice in this country at a pace and level of HUMANTIY which other races have failed to accomplish without a catastrophic collapse of monetary system or entire empire. Humans need to stop enslaving other humans, embrace diversity and empower self governance into prosperity.

[Bruce Jefferson]

02:21 AM on 11/01/2011

@ Natalie Ross, You have a Good Heart..Be blessed forever...wish that there were more like you

[Gizmo9]

09:22 AM on 10/29/2011

Should we feel sympathy for the mother here? I do not think so. I am sorry to say but this child is probably better of where ever she is right now. The mother should be in jail for child abuse and the kids taken from her. Where is the child services here? The mother screaming she wants her child back. Why? so she has one more kid to beat and take her frustration out on.

[Natalie Ross]

09:15 AM on 10/31/2011

people like you kill me, really! You don't live with them, you aren't there to say one way or another what she done to her children. I believe she loves her children very much. And regardless if she "was" arrested for child abuse, that doesn't mean that she can't get help & change. And to say that the child is better off wherever she is just shows your ignorance! What if she's lying dead somewhere, is she really better off??? Do you ever stop to think that the mother is just a very strict disciplinary? There's a big difference between discipline & abuse. This case isn't about what her mother did or didn't do, it's about a 5 year old little girl being found!

[Gizmo9]

11:12 AM on 10/31/2011

"In October 2005, Hunter and her then-husband George Shockley were arrested in California in a child abuse case. Hunter pleaded no contest to corporal punishment and served about four years in prison before she was released on parole in May 2010. Hunter's oldest child, 14 at the time, told police that his mother routinely beat the children."
You say:
The mother is a very strict disciplinarian?
What have you been smoking? No I do not have to live with them, but I do know how to read. I wonder what you will be commenting in case they find out that she has hurt this child for the very last time. No, I do not have any sympathy for this wicked person. But I do hope the baby is found and is placed with somebody who gives her the love she deserves.

[blade1]

06:33 AM on 10/29/2011

This is most unfortunate. From what HP is reporting the police efforts appear to be sincere, and paint's a questionable picture of the mother! Though noted corporal punishment is pretty common! Another unfortunate aspect is this case hasn't received the same national attention the missing baby Lisa has.

In "some" cases it's the families and/or police who seek media attention which I think is a good thing for cases like this. But still there's a breakdown somewhere when one community and gender consistently receive exclusive media attention and other communities only get a pic in then entry way of Walmart!!!

[beemarie]

02:02 AM on 10/29/2011

I live right down the street from them, I never got a knock on my door from the police. As a matter of fact the complex I stay in has so many abandoned apartments that it would be easy for someone to have a child in it without nobody knowing. One mistake they made was NOT checking those places when they were searching within the 2 mile radius. I mean isn't it common sense? An apartment complex within walking distance that are easily broken into & half of its abandoned, sounds like a place that shouldn't have been over looked.

[mother10]

11:27 PM on 10/28/2011

what are they going to say when the mom admits she did it...cause she did !

[mialma Teve]

05:23 AM on 10/28/2011

If the mother keep knocking doors and keeping the case alive. Go to the media and radio she will find help. Why focou on the baby color....She is a beautiful little girl

[starsemly1]

09:28 PM on 10/27/2011

What drives the media is pumping up the fear factor.
1. IF Baby Lisa was not abducted/harmed by someone she knows (her mother), then the fear factor of someone coming into your home, while your passed out drunk, granted, and taking your child is terrifying. It takes a ballsy criminal to break into a home and take a baby.
2. Jahesseye "wandered away from her apartment". The likelihood that she is either with someone who has gotten her away from the nightmare of a mother or she may have run away is greater here.
I hope an adult in her life saved her. I hope Baby Lisa makes it back home and I hope Jahesseye is alright, but I can't say I hope she makes it back home.

[sec svc]

12:40 PM on 10/31/2011

PLEASE! Lisa's mom is a drunk who admits to binge drinking at least 2x/week (5-10 drinks she estimates (pretty big difference btw but both amounts are a lot of booze)) and she should get custody of her daughter back IF she didn't off her. Mom Deborah is a mess. Refuses to let the police talk to her son and her baby daddy's son (yeah, he's not her stepson since she is still married to another man!) Agreed that Jahesseye's mom doesn't sound like a good parent. You don't get 4 years in prison for abusing your child unless it's OUTRAGEOUS abuse or unless you have a lot of priors so either way it's bad news but to state that Lisa should be back with her mom is ridiculous. I hope both of these girls make it back to better homes. Sadly though most likely Deborah killed Lisa and someone abducted Jahesseye. So the one who is painted in the worst light is likely innocent in this case while the drunk is likely guilty.

[Becky Nelson Padilla]

06:10 PM on 10/27/2011

1. The mother is the one responsiblle for the safety of her child. She left her with her siblings who either were not ready for that role or she always let her daughter play outside which in case brings this back to her responsibility.
2. The Glendale police as well as other organizations have worked very hard on this case. The local media is also being very non-judgemental and have been from the beginning.
3. I can understand this moms problems with them looking into her history but that is common in any missing child case.
4. The mother is the first one to mention that her being black makes a difference.
5. This mother beat her children so badly that she was sentenced to 8 years in prison. She also said her own mother beat her as well (in court documents).

So, as a citizen and a parent, I find this mother's incessant accusations towards the police and the community to be what is really taking the focus away from this case. I have no respect for this mother at all, but I do for the little girl and pray that she is returned safely. When I drive in the area I always am looking for her. But if the same kind of abuse was present maybe she just left. I would.

[mother10]

11:31 PM on 10/28/2011

I had not thought of that...maybe one of the relatives took her because of abuse...I do not believe this mom or Baby Lisa's mom...one is Black and one is White...so there is no color line for me...AND casey Anthony can burn in HELL...again, White

[EvieEve]

02:29 PM on 10/27/2011

White people throw out the words "race card" to shut down conversations about race because they don't want to see what's in front of their faces. That's why there is still racism in America and that's why little black child, girls or women get the same coverage as missing white children, women and teenagers. People are using the excuse that Lisa is a baby and Jehessye is five and should know how to use a phone. How dumb does that sound considering all the white kids over five who get national coverage when they go missing.

[terroristmd]

04:16 PM on 10/27/2011

Black people cry race everytime something doesn't go their way or they don't receive enough of a handout.

We have racism today because of both races not having tolarance for each other, if you want to really stop racism you should stop posting things like this. All your post does is create further divides between black and white Americans.

[mialma Teve]

05:31 AM on 10/28/2011

Look who is talking. I do not know how HP let you post your comment

Slaves were sold by African kings...I'­m sure that doesn't fit into your Black = victim mantra...b­ut you need to know the truth. Your people sold you out.

[mother10]

11:33 PM on 10/28/2011

don't receive enough of a handout...come on, like that is not racist of you...that is the divide you as

[socialite baby]

01:38 PM on 10/27/2011

How in the world can either case even be compared?! Lisa is an 11 month old baby, Jahessye is 5 and old enough to know how to use a phone to either dial 911 or her family if she has access to one. This has nothing to do with race, but more than likely age... Sadly children of Jahessye's age are more commonly abducted (if that was what happened) than a baby supposedly snatched from her crib! Not everyone needs to bank off their child's disappearance... Using the race card is a disgusting way to make a point and gain media coverage. Sounds greed based.

[phylliscooper1]

04:34 PM on 10/27/2011

I have a 6 year old granddaughter and she does know how to use a phone but I doubt if she was abducted she would be given the opportunity to use a phone. She would be scared and confused at the least and abused and possibly tortured and killed at the worst. Every small child is helpless. Each child deserves the same attention and resources when they are missing.

Parents, please do not leave your children unsupervised. Older siblings, unless they are adults, are no substitute for parental supervision.

[Natalie Ross]

09:08 AM on 10/31/2011

It doesn't matter you! Every child, no matter "what" age they are needs to be treated the same! And if she had access to a phone, do you honestly believe that her abductors would allow her to use it??? If you do, then I feel sorry for you! Children don't think of things like that when they are being kidnapped, wow really! And this is most definitely about race. You don't see Jahessye's case plastered all over the news, internet & on digital billboards now do you...no you don't!