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JOURNAL
June 2006
THE COLOR OF BLOOD
I am now a proud instructor of Speech at City College, one of many four-year schools in the City University of New York system. CUNY attracts many first- and second-generation immigrant students to its fine academic centers, students who may not be able to afford the outrageous tuitions at Columbia or New York University.
Now that I am part of this system (as instructor and graduate student) and have come to love both the students and faculty there, I am especially heartbroken to hear of the violent death of one of its students. Such was the case in February, when John Jay grad student Imette St. Guillen was abducted, raped, murdered and left on a Brooklyn roadside. The case garnered much attention and eventually Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at the bar where Imette was last seen, was arrested for the gruesome slaying. All New Yorkers were moved by the sad ending to Imette’s promising life.
As that case was unfolding, a few close readers of the newspaper found the case of another CUNY student, Romona Moore of Hunter College, who had been kidnapped, tortured and murdered in April 2003. This case was in the news in April 2006 as her cold-blooded killers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. What they did to Romona Moore was unspeakable, and many New York investigators said it was the worst case they had ever seen in up to thirty years.
Romona Moore, 21, left her Brooklyn home on the evening of April 24, 2003, telling her mother she was going to a local Burger King. A little while later, she stopped by a friend’s house for a short time, and then left, and was never heard from again.
When Romona did not come home that night, her mother, Elle Carmichael, reported her missing to the local police precinct, only to be given the cold shoulder treatment. Although Romona had never missed a class and always told her mother where she was going, the police seemed to suggest that Romona had run away or was partying. According to Carmichael, the police never notified the Missing Persons Squad and closed the investigation after 48 hours, leaving Romona’s family to take matters into its own hands, distributing flyers and talking to neighbors.
It turns out that two animals, Kayson Pearson and Troy Hendrix, had abducted Romona off the street and chained her in a basement for days, repeatedly raping her, burning her with cigarettes, beating her with a barbell and slashing her with a saw, before finally killing her. Several weeks later, Carmichael received an anonymous phone call telling her where the body was and the family arrived there before the police did.
Romona Moore was, you may have guessed, black. But who, outside of a few sharp-eyed New Yorkers, has heard of this promising young woman’s tragic end? Compare her story with the unending national media coverage of blonde Natalee Holloway, gone missing in Aruba. Good people mourn the loss of all young women lost to violence, but some stories, like Romona’s, are nearly forgotten.
After her daugher’s murder, Carmichael worked to get a bill passed by the City Council. Called the Romona Moore Bill, it seeks to expand the criteria used to decide when it is appropriate to launch a missing person investigation. Among other things, this means moving the age from under-16 to under-25 and also taking into account the consistency of a person’s habits. While we can all applaud the fact that Romona’s killers were found and convicted, it is conceivable that a media outcry and search on April 25, 2003 might have saved Romona’s life.
Elle Carmichael has been very vocal about the racism displayed by the police and the media in comparing her daughter’s case to St. Guillen’s. Perhaps you disagree, but consider this: John Jay College, The Daily News and the Association of a Better New York announced a fundraising drive to endow a scholariship in Imette St. Guillen’s name, to the tune of $250,000. So far, $5000 has been raised for a scholarship in Romona Moore’s name.
Those interested in contributing to the Romona Moore Scholarship can make a check out to The Hunter College Foundation, c/o Romona Moore Scholarship, and mail it to The Hunter College Foundation, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
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