Horrifying, heart-wrenching news coming out of Durham, North Carolina, today. Last year, Jadon Higganbothan, a 4-year-old boy, was shot in the head, put in a suitcase, and then buried in a backyard. His crime? According to information coming out of a recent court hearing: “Acting gay.”
The murder is apparently the result of the extreme religious beliefs of a sect called the Black Hebrews. Jadon lived in the home of 27-year-old Peter Lucas Moses, with three women and nine other children. The women, who call themselves Moses’ wives, called Moses “Lord.”
According to an unnamed witness, Moses told Vania Rae Sisk, Jadon’s mother, to “get rid” of Jadon, because his father had left Sisk. But Jadon was left unharmed for the time being. Then, in October 2010, Sisk told Moses that Jadon had smacked another child’s bottom. Moses, flying into a rage, said, “I told you to get rid of him!” and “How am I going to do this?” He then ordered two of the women to set up computers and speakers in the garage. Moses then took Jadon into the garage, shut the door, and shot him in the head while music with the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew was playing. He ordered the women to clean up the body, put it in a suitcase, and leave it in the master suite. After it began to smell, it was buried in the backyard of Moses’ mother’s former home.
All because Jadon might have been gay – though smacking another child on the bottom is far from evidence of homosexuality.
He looked like a sweet child. A sweet, innocent child who was ripped from this earth way too early by a man with nothing but unadulterated hate in his heart.
When police finally discovered what happened, Sisk denied Jadon’s existence. It was only because they found a copy of his birth certificate that police were able to confirm Jadon’s relationship to Sisk.
As tragic as this is, Jadon wasn’t Moses’ only murder victim. One of his “wives,” Antoinette Yvonne McKoy, was also murdered in cold blood after she tried to escape the home.
McKoy, who could not have children and wrote in her diary begging her “Lord” (Moses) not to kill her, reportedly ran to a neighbor’s house to use a phone and call her mother. The other women came outside, and then Moses dragged her back into the house.
The neighbor did not call the police because she claims she thought McKoy was mentally disturbed.
Once back in the house, according to the unnamed witness, she was beaten for most of the day by Moses and the other women. Moses also tried to strangle her with an extension cord. After the other women begged Moses not to “let her go” because they feared he might go to jail, he then dragged her into the bathroom and shot her, repeatedly, with the same gun he used on Jadon. Her body remained in the house for quite some time, until it, too, was buried.
Police went to the home in February when one of the women (the unnamed witness) successfully escaped and alerted authorities, but found nothing suspicious. It wasn’t until McKoy was reported missing by her family that police went again. According to WRAL:
Then, the women denied that Moses lived there, but officers found him hiding in a bathroom cabinet, prosecutors said.
…the suspects told contradictory stories about what happened to McKoy: One woman said she didn't know what happened, another said that McKoy planned to move in but didn't, and Moses said that McKoy got mad about money and left.
Three women are being charged with first-degree murder in McKoy’s death and as accessories to murder in Jadon’s death: Sisk, Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 40, and Larhonda Renee Smith, 40.
Moses is being charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors have obtained permission to seek the death penalty.
The other children, who said they were afraid of what Moses would do to them, have been placed in foster care.
I don’t know what else to say. The whole thing is just fucking horrific. What a tragedy.