By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE family of 36-year-old Shemicka McKinney yesterday described the mother of two as a beautiful, intelligent woman who became depressed and “lost her way”.

Relatives identified Ms McKinney as the woman whose body was pulled out of waters off the Montagu ramp, along with her two young daughters, shortly after 10pm on Sunday.

One relative told The Tribune that she put the mother out of her home on Friday, after months of building tension. According to sources, Shemicka and her children, three-year-old Alisa McKinney and six-year-old Gabrielle McKinney, reportedly stayed in a motel until Sunday night when it is suspected she ran out of money.

Barely able to speak through her tears, Alice Pinder McKinney, Shemicka’s grandmother, said she was “angry, sad and confused” by the deaths of her two “great-grand babies”, allegedly at the hands of their own mother – a woman she raised and loved.

Ms McKinney said her faith in God is the only thing that is getting her through the “toughest time of her life” and she just cannot understand why Shemicka would “drown those beautiful babies”.

The bodies were pulled from the sea shortly after eyewitnesses said they saw a car – a dark blue Toyota Avalon – speeding off the ramp and into the water.

One eyewitness said the woman had driven to the edge of the ramp, stopped and turned around. She later returned and the car went into the water.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said police fear the incident was a murder-suicide but added that it is too early to speculate without the official results of an autopsy.

Ms McKinney told The Tribune her granddaughter was an intelligent beautiful girl, who “had a lot of problems” and “lost her way” after graduating from college in the United States. She said “Mika”, as she was affectionately called, loved her children “with all her heart.”

She added that although her granddaughter was “sad a lot” she would have never imagined she would have “gone this far”.

“I do not understand this, not at all. Those were my babies – mine, my girls – and she took them away from me. I raised her, she has no mother and I raised her from she was a baby and when she had those babies, they were my babies. When she came back from college, she was confused and troubled – she lost her way and started to change. She lived with me for many years before deciding to go out on her own,” Ms McKinney said, during an interview outside her home.

“She could have left those children here, I could have taken them. Many people would have helped her if she was hurting, but she was too proud to ask for help. The children’s father was also around, she could have leaned on him, but she was quiet, kept her problems to herself. God only knows how I am going to cope, but the Lord will never give me more than I can bear. He knows all things and he will make this all right.”

Paula Davis, Shemicka’s cousin, said she took the mother and her children in sometime in January after the deceased told her she needed somewhere to stay for the night. But two months later, Ms Davis said Shemicka was still there and day by day the tension grew between the women who were crammed in a small apartment with seven children.

On Friday, Ms Davis, 46, said she came to the “end of the rope” with Shemicka and threw her out, after Shemicka disrespected her.

“She had an attitude problem and would never take responsibility for her actions. She blamed everyone but herself, that is why she came to stay with me, no one else in the family would take her in because of her attitude. She would be happy one minute, then angry the next,” Ms Davis said.

“She blamed the government for her problems because after she graduated from college with a degree, she still could not get a job. She worked at places like Wendy’s until she decided she was just not going to work any longer. She always made up these stories about being in a relationship with the singer Usher and saying he was going to come back for her. On Friday, I put her out because I have high blood pressure and she kept making noise and arguing and I could not take it anymore. That was the last time I saw her and the kids and then I heard about this story. She was always from place to place so I assumed she was staying with another relative, but there was only so much I can take and I have my own children to raise so I could not take it anymore.”

Families Organised Against Murder (FOAM) President Khandi Gibson and Vice President Tomico Evans showed support to the McKinney family in the wake of the tragic news.

Ms Gibson said she “felt an obligation to help a family in pain.”

Police have in the past urged people to be on the lookout for warning signs of suicide, such as talking about it or having feelings of helplessness or worthlessness.

For counselling and emotional support contact the Department of Social Services hotline on 322-2763 or the Crisis Centre on 328-0922 or 322-4999.