Dad KEITH JERMAINE GRESHAM murdered his 7-year-old son and 4-year-old son during a weekend visitation, then thoughtfully offed himself so as to avoid being held accountable. What a stinking coward.
The media implies that it was the mother's choice to send these boys to stay with Gresham for the weekend, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. Note the language about an "ongoing custody dispute"--it should be clear what this really means when we have a dad who mowed down two innocent young boys in cold blood. What it means is that there was no "dispute" at all-- no mutual tit-for-tat, no disagreement. This is basically code for a violent father hammering at the mother for more custodial rights, in order to reduce his child support obligations and/or to extend his abusive control over the children, and hence over the mother.
So it's extremely unlikely that this mother freely and joyfully packed the kids off to Dad's for the weekend. In fact, this was probably something she was pushed to do, perhaps to avoid more threats and/or litigation. I'd like to see the media pursue this further. Who was the judge in this case? Why was Dad allowed to continue his custody war against this protective mother?
The media needs to establish and report the legal custodial contexts that make these crimes possible, not just the bloody details of the crime itself. In just a year or so of random collecting, I have found around 90 articles of fathers murdering children where custody, visitation, and/or child support played a factor. And that's just in the U.S. When is the big media going to take notice?
http://www.ajc.com/news/boys-4-and-7-517305.html
Boys, 4 and 7, killed in double murder-suicide
By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Authorities on Tuesday released the name of a Jackson County man who shot and killed his young son and stepson before turning the gun on himself.
Relatives of 36-year-old Keith Jermaine Gresham found the Commerce man dead Monday afternoon inside a car parked on a remote dirt road between Commerce and Jefferson, according to Chief Deputy David Cochran of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.
The two boys, Keionte Gresham, 4, and Keion Gresham, 7, were found shot to death outside the vehicle.
Keith Gresham was Keion's natural father, according to Cochran.
Cochran told the AJC on Tuesday that Keith Gresham had been involved in an ongoing domestic dispute with the children's mother, who had custody of the boys.
She let the boys spend the weekend with Gresham, but he failed to return them.
On Monday morning, relatives got phone calls and text messages from Gresham, who threatened to harm himself, Cochran said. They went looking for Gresham and the boys, and found them dead on Old Woods Bridge Road.