I wrote an open letter to Jerice. I really hoped that if she were innocent she would clear her name. She is saying she is going to take a polygraph, I hope she will.
This case is very frustrating. While it took way too long for mainstream media to cover this case, it has been covered. Jhessye’s face has been out for the world to see. No leads have surfaced as to where she is, none that have been proven true. Its disturbing that the people who were with Jerice at the beginning, have left. No one hears from the child advocate, anymore, even the family is asking questions of Jerice. There is something we do not know, yet. There are facts that we are not privvy to, besides what we know that is telling people, this is not what it was thought to be.
There are clues that seem to point squarely at Jerice Hunter, Jhessye’s mother. Yet we see her telling us, she will find Jhessye. It is easy to cry, and say words that make you sound innocent. Is that what Jerice Hunter was doing, when she gave the interview? Time will tell. Even she would have to agree,with her backround, she is more than the logical suspect. There are many problems with this case, some of them caused by Jerice, herself.
1) It was reported that the Glendale police department, was working with the F.B.I. to set up a lie detector test for Jerice. It was not reported as something that would be voluntary. If they wanted her for a lie detector test, surely the Glendale Police Department could have done the test.
Jerice says she has wanted that from the beginning.
2) Two cousins reported believing Jhessye was being abused. Mahogany Hightower said Jhessye begged her to let her come home with them.Hightower also said she had called CPS several times and that they told her they talked to the children. The children denied being abused. Lisa Vance, said that she saw marks on Jhessye, that led her to believe she was being abused. These two of the four cousins who raised Jhessye and did not want Jerice to take her. So could this be revenge for Jerice taking Jhessye?
3) Jhessye did not go to school for the week and a half before she went missing. Why was this not found out earlier? I realize that when a child goes missing, it is a hectic time, but that was something Jerice should have told police. It would have been important, because if Jhessye did have ringworm, this would be something a parent would be concerned about. If she were on medication, that should have been one of the first details to come out. It seems like that would be a detail that you would remember. Again, in a time of crisis, it might have been overlooked. It just does not feel right.
4) There are varying accounts of what was going on right before Jerice left to run her errands.
One report has her saying, the older kids were in the backyard and Jhessye was getting ready to join them.
Another quotes her as saying, the older kids were in the back of the house, doing chores and that she(Jerice) told Jhessye to watch television.
Still another has her saying the older children were outside playing and she had locked Jhessye in the house, so she would be safe.
This is troublesome, because none of those accounts sound enough alike to be a misunderstanding.
5) The police have said that, CPS removing the three older children from the home, had nothing to do with this case. That just does not ring true. While there have been cases where CPS wrongly removed children, I do not think this is one of them. CPS will only remove children if they believe there is abuse. They are not going to remove them just because they feel like it. The sad thing about this is, if something has happened to Jhessye, CPS had the chance to save her. Even a common everyday person, is going to know that a child who is being abused is not going to tell. They do not know if this person is going back to the abuser and tell them. In this case, the older children had already been failed by their grandmother and CPS, and this is not an “if” statement, this is a fact. The children that were abused by Jerice, were given back to her. They had been failed once, why are they going to tell anyone, anything? It would seem that the worker would have looked at the backround and conducted a thorough investigation. I realize that every CPS in every state, is understaffed, because of money problems. That being the case, why even have workers if they cannot do their job?
6) Unless there is data that has not been published, Jerice has an anger problem, that has not been dealt with. This is proven with the abuse that the children endured, before she went to prison. Coming out of prison after 4 years, without any treatment for her problem, is not going to be good for the children. These kids are the reason she went to prison. It is almost impossible, if not totally impossible to self-treat an anger problem. It is something that can be controlled with treatment and medications. This should have been looked at before she got her children back. When Jerice came out of prison, the ball was not dropped, it was thrown out of bounds and left there.
It is very difficult to write this type of article, without it becoming personal. These are children, not brought into this world to be abused. Their lives will never be normal. They can never trust again, for that child inside who has been betrayed, will always be there. These are facts that have happened. It would not be outside the realm of reality for this to have happened again. If it hasn’t and Jhessye is safe and with someone who needed a little girl to love, that would be wonderful. They would have the chance to bring her home and to reunite her with her sisters.
If it were not for the facts, the varying stories, Jhessye missing school, and the backround of the mother, it would be easy to believe that Jhessye is with someone, somewhere. The hope is that Jhessye will be found and brought home. It is the hope of all, that she be healthy and happy, if not, she still needs to come home.
We who love her and the family who love her, need closure, need to know where she is, and if we will be joyful or if we grieve.