UPDATE 9/11/08 – Yesterday, a grand jury indicted Randy Terrell Sylvester, Sr. in the murders of his children, Randy Jr. and Denim Sylvester. The burned bodies of the children were found in southeast Houston on June 21, stuffed inside a suitcase and a wooden box. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the elder Sylvester on both counts of first-degree murder. Sylvester is also facing an assault charge for an attack on the childrens mother in June.
Yes, that poor little girl’s name is Denim. I know.
Pasadena, TX - Randy Sylvester Jr., 7, and his three year old sister Denim have been missing since Father’s Day. The last time the children were seen, they were playing on a tennis court at their apartment complex at about 3:45 p.m. Their mother, Jerilynn St. Cyr, became worried sometime later when the kids didn’t come back inside. She notified the children’s father, who lives in the same complex, but he didn’t have the kids either. At about 9:15 p.m., the parents reported their kids missing.
Randy and Denim were seen by neighbors earlier in the afternoon, hanging out at the complex with their dad, Randy Sylvester Sr. Apparently it’s not uncommon for the children to go back and forth between their parents’ apartments, which may account for some of the delay in reporting the missing kids to police. But by Monday morning, searchers were out in force.
Jerilynn St. Cyr is already in front of the cameras, talking about how the police aren’t working hard enough, doing enough to find her kids. I don’t know, but it seems to me that maybe you shouldn’t leave a seven year old in charge of a three year old outside in Pasadena, which is in the southside metro Houston area. Houston is the fourth largest city in America, so maybe not the smartest place to go back inside and leave the first grader to watch the baby.
Police are also going back over the parents’ stories. A department spokesman says that there were some “inconsistencies”. Now that could be as simple as a parent not looking at their watch right. Then again, that could also mean that a parent knows exactly where the children are. However, no signs of foul play were found in either parent’s apartment by late Monday night. The father’s car was also searched and came up clean. Further, the kids are not thought to be with relatives.
So why no Amber Alert? Because nobody saw anything. In order for an Amber Alert to be issued, a suspect or suspect vehicle and a time of disappearance are needed – and in this case, there’s no suspect or vehicle yet, and no clear time the kids went missing. A four or five hour window is unhelpful at best.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Randy is seven years old. He is 4 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 55 pounds. He was wearing a blue-and-orange University of Florida Gators shirt, blue denim shorts and blue-and-white tennis shoes. Denim is three. She is about 2 feet, 5 inches tall and was wearing pink shorts, pink flip-flop sandals and a pink T-shirt with brown trim. Her hair was braided and pulled back in a ponytail when she was last seen.
As usual, I’ll update as information comes in. I’m half inclined to think the mother knows something, based on her affect, although I’ve been wrong before. In this interview, she’s all about “we were gonna look for our own kids until night fell” and showing off the Playstations in between begging for her children’s return. An interesting statement she made is “Do you know how it feels to not have your children.. to not be able to hold them anymore?” Maybe I’m wrong, but that just seems odd to me.
UPDATE 6/18/08 - The father, Randy Sylvester Senior, has emerged as the primary suspect in his children’s disappearance and possible deaths. After assaulting Jerilynn St. Cyr during an argument Monday night (after the children went missing Sunday), he picked up a domestic violence charge. By Tuesday, he had told St. Cyr that the children were dead and it was “time to move on”. St. Cyr’s timeline isn’t quite lining up, but at this point, it looks more like she wasn’t watching her kids, and less like she killed them. I believe she knew what he’d done on Monday.
UPDATE 6/19/08 - After a full day of questioning both parents, the investigation again centers on Randy Sylvester, Sr. Police issued a BOLO alert for a black chest with a red star sticker on it and a wheeled suitcase this evening. Community activist and New Black Panthers leader Quanell X met with Sylvester to talk about a possible confession – Sylvester had refused a lie detector test earlier in the week. Shortly after 8:30 pm local time, police near Burke-Crenshaw Park in Pasadena told the media and news crews to back off the area, as it has been declared a crime scene. Sylvester was with police at a body of water in the park tonight, and dive teams are set to resume searching at dawn.
UPDATE 6/21/08 – After a dive search that took all day on Friday, drained three park ponds, and was beginning to look like a false trail, the bodies of Randy Sylvester, Jr. and Denim Sylvester have been found. According to an automated call made by Texas EquuSearch at about 1:45 a.m. Central Time, “The small bodies of Denim and Randy Sylvester are currently being recovered by Pasadena Police officials.” The message apologizes for the hour of the call and thanks search supporters for their prayers, but says, “..they’re home.”
Police have been gathered at a wooded crime scene near Berry Creek at the intersection of Galveston and Allendale Roads in southeast Houston. That site is 6.7 miles from Burke-Crenshaw Park, where police have been searching for the children for the past several days. Accounts are not consistent yet on whether Sylvester led police to the burned bodies of his children, but it’s now clear that Sylvester intentionally misled investigators who were searching for his children, as they were not dumped in the water at all, but were rather burned.
Randy Sylvester, Senior is being held without bond in the Harris County Jail on multiple charges stemming from other warrants and the assault on his wife Monday. He is expected to be charged with murder.
More details as they become available, as usual.
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