Mother of 10-year-old girl shot and killed by dad shares her story (Rochester, New York)

This saddens me to no end, how these little girls with so much promise lost their lives.

And it makes me angry how incompetent and arrogant the Rochester Police were in handling this abduction and murder of these two children. This mother of the 10-year-old TOLD the police that the dad could be "dangerous." This dad had BEATEN this kid's face in so bad that she was still visibly bruised eight days later. All he got was "supervised" visitation and (useless) anger management classes. Dad had apparently phoned the mother after he abducted the girl from a playground, and told her this story about going for ice cream--but it was all a lie. No ice cream shop in the area call recall their presence. Plus, the mother was suspicious because she didn't "hear any of the children." Did this constitute an emergency for the police? NOPE. No Amber Alert. Just a routine domestic incidence report. This was LAST FRIDAY.

Not till MONDAY did the police file a criminal report and start the warrant process. Not till TUESDAY MORNING was Mom able to go to court and file a missing persons report. That same morning, the mother found out that her daughter had been shot to death by her father, ADAM PARCELLS.

So what the hell was the point of the mother getting sole custody, when the police acted like it was joint custody?

http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top_stories/556436/mother-of-girl-shot-and-killed-by-father-shares-her-story/

8:54 AM
Mother of Girl Shot and Killed by Father Shares Her Story

By: Cristina Domingues

For Raechel Coffey, the emotions are still so raw. She misses her 10-year-old daughter Noel Parcells and still agonizes about the last moments before her daughter's death. Raechel Coffey did not want to show her face, but spoke to us on camera to tell us more about what happened in those days Noel was missing.

For Raechel Coffey, the emotions are still so raw. She misses her 10-year-old daughter Noel Parcells and still agonizes about the last moments before her daughter's death.

Raechel Coffey did not want to show her face, but spoke to us on camera to tell us more about what happened in those days Noel was missing.

Noel and her three-year-old half-sister Mia Parcells of Hilton were both shot to death while they slept in a tent at a Lake George campground on Labor Day.

The Warren County Sheriff said the girls' father, 29-year old Adam Parcells of Hilton, shot the girls multiple times before fatally shooting himself with a .45 caliber rifle. Their bodies were discovered by the campground owner Tuesday morning.

Coffey said Friday, Adam took the girls from a playground. Coffey said she started to look for the girls and call their father.

"He called me back. I said, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘We're just getting ice cream.’ I said, ‘Where?’ Something struck me as really strange. I didn't hear any of the children."

That would be the last time she would ever speak to Adam. Coffey says no one at that ice cream shop ever saw the girls. That's when she called police. The Rochester Police Department says officers took a domestic incident report, which are used in custody situations. The RPD says there was never any indication the child was in imminent danger, which could've activated an Amber Alert.

Coffey says she told police she had sole custody of Noel and told them Adam could be dangerous.

"He's not allowed to have unsupervised visits,” Coffey said she told police. “He has to go through anger management first, because he hit her back in April and made her face so black and blue, it's visible on those photos eight days later."

Coffey says they got information that Adam was at the camp. Saturday, she says her mother called 311 twice, saying Adam wasn't acting normally.

"I knew something was wrong. I knew she couldn't sleep without night, night. There was no change of clothing, no sleeping bag, no toothbrush..."

Monday Coffey says she called police again. The RPD says officers now filed a criminal report, and a warrant process was started.

Tuesday, as Noel was supposed to start at a new school, she was still missing. Coffey went to court, and then finally was able to file a missing persons report.

Later Tuesday morning, Coffey would find out, Noel had been killed.

"I knew if the State Police were there, something was horribly wrong,” Coffey explained through tears. “I said, 'Are they OK?' 'No ma'am I don't think so.' I said, 'Is my daughter OK?’ He said 'No ma'am I believe she's not.' I started screaming really badly. I don't know if he shot the other girl first and and my daughter woke up. She would've been so afraid..."

Coffey says Noel was so full of promise. She was a wonderful artist, who had so many dreams as she laid out in a poem she wrote about herself.

Noel wrote she was a "lover of music, freedom and art. Who feels passionate for art, excitement for dancing, sorrow for homeless people. Who fears death, cars and airplanes. Who would like to see an eclipse, outer space and the world."

Coffey says she is frustrated with the system that wouldn't allow her to file that missing persons report right away. "She was missing. She was not with me. She was gone. It's not like we knew where he was either."

Right now however, Coffey is focused on burying her daughter. She is studying at the University of Rochester and hopes she will now be able to bury Noel close to school and home at Mount Hope Cemetery.

“Last week she asked me, ‘Are we going to see the leaves at Mt. Hope Cemetery?’ I promised her we would, and I don't want to break that promise."

Coffey hopes someone out there may be able to help her make that final wish come true and maybe donate a plot for her daughter. Friends and family are also asking that the community light candles for the girls Friday night.