Banita Jacks Needs Air Freshener, 4 Kids Dead
January 9, 2008 by impqueen
Washington, DC – Whoa. U.S. Marshals that were “serving an eviction notice” in a southeast DC apartment building January 9 smelled something really, really rank. When they investigated the smell, they did not find mice in the air ducts or someone’s lost guinea pig. What they did find was pretty heinous, even for Washington.
The decomposing corpses of four young girls were found in the apartment, where their mother, Banita Jacks, 33, had been living.  With the dead bodies of her daughters, 5-year-old Aja Fogle, 6-year-old N’Kiah Fogle, 11-year-old Britney Jacks and 17-year-old Tatianna Jacks.   For weeks, possibly months.
Can I just stop a minute and get a group “EWWWWWW”?
It took a full day for the medical examiner to determine gender and sort-of-maybe cause of death. The oldest daughter, Tatianna, was apparently stabbed in the abdomen.  Aja, N’Kiah and Britney were suffocated or perhaps poisoned.
When the bodies are so far gone that the medical examiner can’t tell what sex they are, much less cause of death, that’s bad. And Mom was just hanging out in the house? Banita makes Andrea Yates look like the poster child for sane parenting.Â
There appear to have been some serious problems in the family – the father died a year ago, the family had been on the streets part of the time. Banita appears to have lost her shit sometime within the last few months as well. She’sShe reviews
told investigators that her daughters were “beginning to die” when their electricity was cut off and reportedly trotted out the “my kids were possessed so I had to destroy them” story as well. Honestly, that one’s getting old. Can’t we get a new, more interesting breed of crazy?
Details are still forthcoming, and I’ll edit as I have more information – like why it takes U.S. marshals to serve an eviction notice, and where the apartment super was, and why nobody noticed four kids missing long enough to stank like that. Â Even former DC mayor and cokehound Marion Berry thinks somebody should have been clued in on this one, and when Marion Berry is pissed off, y’all, someone is gonna pay.
 The three older girls attended Meridian Public Charter School until March 2007, when their mother decided to “home school them”. Yeah, that didn’t work out. School officials reported truancy at various times, but there doesn’t seem to have been any serious attempt to find out why the girls weren’t in school or why an often-homeless mother would homeschool her children.
Jacks had been described by neighbors as a large woman, but she was considerably thinner when removed from the apartment yesterday.   I originally posted that the mother probably killed her daughters, kept the bodies around, and lost weight from the smell. Unfortunately, it looks like I was right.
And, as is becoming all too normal, police say that neighbors did express concern for the girls in that home, and did contact DC Child and Family Services, who says that they closed the case after being told that the family had “moved to Maryland”, but also now admits that “we lost them”.  Gee, yathink?Â
4:58 pm on January 9th, 2008
EWWWWWW……
Gruesome.
5:00 pm on January 9th, 2008
I second that.
EWWWWWW.
What a stank ho….
5:03 pm on January 9th, 2008
Apathy is killing our children and our country.
Damn and Double damn, again. When the neighbor knew the kids were there and then suddenly there weren’t any kids – why didn’t good ole Mr. Jones report it? Asshat.
5:05 pm on January 9th, 2008
Had to add the picture. Been waiting to use it FOREVER.
5:28 pm on January 9th, 2008
what picture? did i kill it or did it not show up?
5:30 pm on January 9th, 2008
Nah, it’s me adding shit to your story before you have even finished. It didn’t matter much, as the picture was more geared towards dead boys, not girls.
5:52 pm on January 9th, 2008
Ya know, everyone is in everyone’s business, yet the important shit is never reported! I’m not into snitching cause ya know snitches get stitches, but when children are possibly harmed WTF of course you have to intervene, how do people sleep at night?
5:54 pm on January 9th, 2008
Ewwww
Oh I’m digging this sentence, Impy…..”With the dead bodies. And their various effluvia, insect activity and funny smells.”
The effluvia would be causing your funny smells….since that is like stinky gases from rotting whatever, shit, flesh etc….right? You can tell you’re nurse, Imp. (not sure I would of known what that was if it wasn’t for my nursing education)
I cannot wait to hear what the fuck this mother has to say.
Great story, Imp.
5:56 pm on January 9th, 2008
To the snitch thing – I agree whole heartedly. I hate a snitch myself – somethings should be a person’s own business and then sometimes certain things are everyone’s business.
But reporting child abuse or neglect is not ratting anyone out. It is a requirement to be human, or at least it should be.
6:19 pm on January 9th, 2008
She probably told anyone who asked where the kids were that they had gone to live with their father or grandparents, easy done.
She has to be very, very sick in the head this woman.
6:44 pm on January 9th, 2008
here’s a picture of the row house – so there probably wasn’t a super at all, but one would think the neighbors would have called someone sooner.
The bodies were upstairs in the middle grey unit – the one airing out with the door open.
9:31 pm on January 9th, 2008
This woman is seriously sick in the head. I’m guessing too it was probably murder but it’s beyond me what this woman’s motive was for killing her kids, and then living with thier decomposing bodies.
10:17 pm on January 9th, 2008
OK, so these nimrods believe whatever anyone tells them without even a small effort to check? A simple knock on the door or a myriad of other actions could have resulted in a completely different outcome and these poor kids might still be alive. It’s infuriating.
10:49 pm on January 9th, 2008
I had single mouse die in the wall of my apartment and the place smelled like a wet paper bag for about a month. I cannot imagine what five dead people would do to the air.
I say snitch away if something illegal is going on — you might be indirectly saving someone’s life.
3:35 am on January 10th, 2008
http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20080109/4785a650_3ca6_1552620080110-1567318953
Just another version. But here is confirmation of my mouse story: “‘We thought it was probably dead mice in the vent or something,’ [a neighbor] said, adding that he had talked to the landlord about it.”
The defense of the social workers: “We made several attempts to make contact with these people. We were unable to have any face-to-face contact with them,” Good said. “On the last attempt (in early May), it appeared they were no longer living at the address.”
And now they aren’t living at all. Good work.
10:26 am on January 10th, 2008
a funny note about children’s aid workers…. about 2 months after I gave birth to my son, I’m home alone with him and the doorbell rings. I peek out… there’s a children’s aid worker on my step. I start panicking … why are they here? he never cries, not so much as a scratch on him, a healthy little heifer of a guy…. I would never harm a hair on his beautiful head…
I take a deep breath, open the door. they start asking for people I’ve never heard of (previous owners? tenants?). I tell them we bought the place FIVE months ago, no idea who lived here prior.
AS I shut the door, irony slaps me in the face… if this was a new case, it took them FIVE months to check into whether a child was in danger? if it was a follow-up call… their records are that outdated?
no wonder kids die while wtg for help from an agency whose supposed mission is to protect them!
on an aside, a month after that, a cop shows up at my door with a subpeona for a previous owner/tenant to testify in an arson case! not long after that – we clued in that we were living in a less than desirable neighborhood and moved the hell out!
1:32 pm on January 10th, 2008
Here’s a sad update:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/10/bodies.found.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four girls faces murder charges, and authorities believe she is the victims’ mother, officials said Thursday.
Banita Jacks, 33, was expected to appear Thursday in D.C. Superior Court, where the charges will be formally presented, prosecutors said.
“We are working on the assumption that these are her four children,” D.C. police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference.
The bodies of the girls — ages 5, 6, 11 and 17 — were found Wednesday by deputy U.S. marshals serving an eviction notice next door discovered them Wednesday, authorities said.
The bodies were likely there more than 15 days, “based on the insects that were found there,” Medical examiner Dr. Marie Pierre-Louis said.
How the girls died remained under investigation, but Pierre-Louis said it appeared the oldest child might have been stabbed in the abdomen. The other three children might have been poisoned or asphyxiated, she said.
1:50 pm on January 10th, 2008
How sad, makes you wonder if the 17 year old caught her doing something to the others and tried to stop her and wound up getting stabbed.
1:59 pm on January 10th, 2008
The 17 year old would probably be the strongest child, therefore harder to “take out”. It’s sickening.
4:49 pm on January 10th, 2008
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=32847&cat=0
this story talks of kids father dying a year ago
Banita Jacks has been charged with murder Thursday after police found four decomposing bodies in her Washington, D.C. house. Jacks has been charged with murder for two of the four deaths.
City officials believe the girls are Banita Jacks’s daughters, ages 5, 6, 11 and 17. However, due to the conditions of the bodies, the identities of the girls has not yet been determined.
U.S. marshals said Jacks, 33, seemed calm as they knocked on the door of her rowhouse in the Southeast section of Washington yesterday to serve a routine eviction notice. She offered no clue that her daughters’ decaying bodies lay upstairs.
According to the Washington Post, the girls appeared to have been dead at least 15 days based on the insects that were found on their bodies.
The girls attended two well-regarded D.C. public charter schools until last March. The older daughter attended Booker T. Washington Public Charter School for Technical Arts and the three younger daughters attended Meridian Public Charter School, both in Northwest Washington.
The girls’ father died about a year ago and Jacks withdrew the girls a short time later, saying she planned to home-school them.
Thus far, due to the evidence, it appears that the oldest child may have been stabbed in the abdomen, while the younger three may have been asphyxiated or poisoned.
For more legal news, please check out http://news.finditt.com/NewsList.aspx?cat=19&wcat=17
7:24 pm on January 10th, 2008
what did i tell ya? Sheesh.
7:34 pm on January 10th, 2008
More info.Seems as if this family had been living on the streets and in vehicles. They were only in the residence they were in because of a cancer charity group which allowed them to move in because Banita’s husband, Nate was terminally ill. He died a year ago. Banita snapped.
The kids didn’t even know Nate was dead last time the family talked to them almost. They though he had left them because Banita told them Nate left because they were bad kids. They were being kicked out as they had lost the right to live in the rowhouse since Nate was dead.
She told investigators that the kids were starting to die when the electricity was turned off, and she also mentioned they were possessed.
Read about it:
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0108/486932.html
7:47 pm on January 10th, 2008
Oh, this one just gets better and better. I edited the article to add Banita’s name and some more current info, but holy effing cats, this one is nuts even by DD standards. Thanks to everyone who updated today while i was holding down the couch
7:54 pm on January 10th, 2008
here’s another great shot of Banita after the Live With Your Kid’s Rotting Corpses Diet Plan:
Yeah, she looks sane. Not.
8:06 pm on January 10th, 2008
She has that “why is everyone being MEAN to me” female perp look.
8:22 pm on January 10th, 2008
and the article is mostly updated, at least for the moment.
9:04 pm on January 10th, 2008
The look isn’t insanity… she’s still high on the fumes of her decomposing daughters.
12:33 am on January 11th, 2008
http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=national&id=20080110/4785a650_3ca6_1552620080110-1933397693
Mostly information that was in the article that Morbid listed. The baby mamma now blames demons, but says the girls died in their sleep. The demons apparently stabbed one girl, hit another in the head, and bound rope around the necks of the other two. When the school district came to ask where the girls were, Baby Mamma said she was going to home school them.
She came to court in a white jumpsuit and sandals, which I find odd. Do they even make jumpsuits anymore? Maybe someone dug through the back of Mrs. Brady’s closet?
12:39 am on January 11th, 2008
Demons huh that’s a new one wtf why not just say: I killed them they were aggravating me always wanting something, but on the plus side I’ve lost 25lbs.
1:50 am on January 11th, 2008
Fuck this is horrible, those poor kids….my god. Crazy shit.
2:43 am on January 11th, 2008
That would be christmas eve or christmas day – hope they weren’t complaining about not getting what they wanted on their santa list.
10:37 am on January 11th, 2008
They thought he had left them because Banita told them Nate left because they were bad kids.
That’s just beyond pathetic –
Maybe someone dug through the back of Mrs. Brady’s closet?
Great line! LOL
10:46 am on January 11th, 2008
LMAO!!!
12:58 pm on January 12th, 2008
“D.C. knew of problems before 4 girls’ deaths
Social worker suspected mom of holding one girl hostage, city says”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22623296/
“The social worker reported that after speaking to [Banita] Jacks she appeared to have mental health issues and “that she was possibly holding Brittany hostage by refusing to allow her to attend school,” Fenty said.”
So natch the city didn’t get aggressive about following up. Now that the kids are dead, the city’s response about the social workers who failed is:
“We just need to talk, not to blame,” said Sabrina Brown, vice president of Local 2401 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
I think we need a little blame in this one. Why are we paying taxes to have social workers who apparently just wander around and make bad decisions?
1:42 pm on January 12th, 2008
THANK YOU Wry! How do these people continue to let kids die and get away with it???? Why won’t anyone in a higher position do something?
Sabrina honey, enough talking, let’s do something bitch!
1:57 pm on January 12th, 2008
I am not trying to defend anyone here, but can you imagine the huge caseloads these social workers have? I would not want to do their jobs. It is still no excuse, these children died because someone failed to do their job correctly. These children fell through some big ass cracks in the system.
2:02 pm on January 12th, 2008
From what I am understanding from all of this is they were moved out of the charity house in February due to the father’s death. then they lived on the streets/cars until they found this new place. so I wonder does the charity not try to help the families transition after a family member dies? I am definitly not trying to blame the charity, but it seems strange that they went straight from there to the streets.
4:10 pm on January 12th, 2008
Yes, I am a bit interested in that myself.
5:41 pm on January 12th, 2008
I am really not trying to point blame at anyone, she did murder her kids. But I think maybe she did snap in this situation (not an excuse for her, I am just trying to understand her situation)
Her husband dies less than a year ago. She has four kids and lives on the street. Then she does have a home and she must have already got an eviction notice because of the federal marshall’s involvment. They havn’t said anything yet about her pimping herself or her daughters. they have no food, they are all hungry, maybe she doesnt trust the system to help (her husband dies and they are kicked out of the only home they have known for a while) Now it is Christmas and she can’t do anything for her kids.
I really am not a bleeding heart, I am just trying to understand how you take the lives of those 4 beautiful, smiling, happy children.
And then when she is in jail and inmate notices that she takes tiny little bites while eating. She was making it last because she is not sure when the next meal is coming.
5:59 pm on January 12th, 2008
MG I totally get what you are saying…and hugs to you for your kind heart. It is true, sounds like this lady was at her end, she flipped the fuck out. The system and society in general let her ass and those four kids down. It is a sad story all the way around.
I will never understand why there are so many wealthy folks in good old USA and then there are so many homeless and poor. Something is horribly unfair in this twisted society we live in.
7:20 pm on January 12th, 2008
Thanks
I couldn’t agree with you more.
7:39 pm on January 12th, 2008
I don’t know. Baby Mamma may have flipped out, but she had enough organizational skills left to stab one child, crush another’s skull, and strangle the other two. And she didn’t harm herself, so her violence was not directed toward herself, only toward helpless others.
As for the caseloads of the social workers, I do understand that they are innundated. But the system isn’t working and it’s time to stop paying people to do this work. What the answer is, I’m not sure. But what we have is the appearance that a helpful, constructive system is in place, when in fact it’s just a dysfunctional pretense.
I wonder if we’ll get a post-er on this one telling us that we don’t know the people involved, therefore can’t comment, etc.
9:08 pm on January 12th, 2008
I am a reasonable person, I can see her pain, her dilemna.
Still…
This reminds me of the stupid bitch from TX that drowned 5 kids.
Okay, you snapped. Shit is bad.
After murdering your first daughter, no clarity- no what am I doing?
After murdering your second daughter, still no shock, no clarity- no what am I doing?
After murdering your third daughter, no comprehension, still no shock, no clarity- no what am I doing?
After murdering your fourth daughter, yet again no emotion connecting you to the child that was once in your womb, no comprehension, still no shock, no clarity- no what am I doing?
Kids are gone, apparently there is finally a momment of clarity, why? Cause she didn’t finish. Didn’t off herself. In her madness self-preservation took over. Funny, and quite conveniant.
While I don’t understand madness cause I am not mad (at least in the legal sense of the word) in my partially sane mind I just see that at some moment, some time when you child is screaming, begging for their life, calling you mommy something has got to click!
On the other hand, maybe I just made her case.
If you can’t feed your kids turn them over to child services. Why does everyone expect SS to intervine? Go to them! There is no way they could possibly know of every bad situation.
I would rather the state have custody of my kids in a bad situation than to kill them. Fuck your ego. Foster care ain’t great, but the kids would be alive and you could check on them regularly.
1:00 am on January 13th, 2008
You are right Michelle in that she should have stopped how insane would she have to be to kill all of her kids like that?
The Andrea Yates story did piss me off. That woman had everything, beautiful kids, food, shelter, and a loving husband. She was a stay at home mom who didnt have to work. I really do not believe her “snapping” story. Maybe I will go to hell for judging her but I cannot see drowing all 5 kids in the bathtub. You are right there are simularities to these stories. But Andrea Yates had help, she had a therapist and she was on medication. Andrea Yates did have the oppurtunity to count to ten hold her breath and walk away. she had support and love. I do not fell sorry for Andrea Yates like I feel for this woman and her family. I do feel horribly sad for Andrea’s children and Banita’s children. Neither one of these stories had to happen they were preventable but Andrea had so much more than Banita ever had and she just wadded it up and threw it away.
However, I am starting to feel less sorry for Banita after reading that she and the children’s father had substance abuse issues.
1:20 am on January 13th, 2008
thanks for the props:
STILL I ASK
why did the killing stop with the kids? SELF-Preservation!
No thoughts? Why does madness stop after the murder of children?
Suddenlly a mind wakes up?
BULLSHIT! Premeditated Murder!
1:46 am on January 13th, 2008
I would have sooo much more respect for her thoughts if she offed herself BEFORE SHE DID THE KIDS.
Suicide must be unthinkable, but not tooo much! Take yourself out first./ Stupid Bitch
3:50 am on January 13th, 2008
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
5:31 pm on January 14th, 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/14/bodies.found.ap/index.html
It looks like some peeps are going to be job hunting due to the mistakes made in this case. More kids fell through the cracks.
6:00 pm on January 14th, 2008
I do concur, just comparing the systematic killing of ones kids without ever waking up, not the entire situation.
10:00 am on April 18th, 2009
I knew a very beautiful single mom back in 1981 who had just given birth to her second child. The baby was only 3 months old when she got laid-off from her job of 3 years. Life got really rough on her; she started using food stamps when the unemployment ran out; she had gotten evicted from one apartment and was behind on the rent in her new place. What did she do? She was going to gas stations and asking if she could clean their bathrooms for a set fee… now, that is what a mother does… she finds a way!
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