It has been 6 months, 6 long months since the day my daughter died. She was just 18 when someone took her from me, 18! Who would want to murder an 18 year old, our baby girl? That’s a question I have been asking myself every minute for the past 6 months looking for an answer.

My wife, Marilyn, and I have been struggling to breathe for the past 6 months. We reminisce over the good times, and harp on the bad. We remember the first day we laid eyes on our breathing, beautiful, gentle, and kind baby girl. Adele Marilyn Adams was the second love of my life coming after her mother. She had perfect blue eyes like me and dark brown hair like her mother. But, 18 years later she was gone.

The day I received the call from the Chicago Police Department was the worst day of my life. Marilyn and I were sitting at the dinner table conversing about our busy days at work. Adele was supposed to be home later that night since she had school and had to work after till late. When the phone rang and I checked the caller id, I was not completely surprised but my friends from the department usually called during the day. I answered because my brother probably had some information to share with me or to make plans for a gathering.

My brother Jeff was the one to call, “Hey Dave, how are you and Marilyn?”

I responded, “We are fine, and you.”

“We need you to come into the precinct immediately and bring Marilyn,” he told me.

I didn’t ask any questions and responded “Okay, be there soon.”

Marilyn and I jumped into the car and basically sped to the precinct. We ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator because it seemed to be faster. We walked into the precinct and everyone stopped and stared. I had a gut feeling that something was terribly wrong. My brother came out with a horrified expression and asked us to go into the interrogation room. We remained standing but my brother told us to sit.

I couldn’t take the anxiety so I asked, “What happened?”

My brother looked into my eyes and said “Something happened with Adele.”

Marilyn couldn’t take it either and she yelled, “What happened to our baby girl Jeff, tell me now or so help me God.”

“Adele was murdered today around 5,” my brother blurted out.

I went numb and Marilyn started to scream and yelled, “No, no, no, no, no! She is going to come home tonight; my girl will come home tonight.”

Jeff said, “No she won’t we have her body in the morgue.”

Marilyn broke down at that point screaming, thrashing, and yelling. All I could do was hold Marilyn as she sobbed and heaved on my chest. She looked up at me as a tear ran down my face and she yelled, “How could someone do this to our baby girl?”

“I don’t know,” was all I could respond.

Jeff gave us a few minutes alone that felt like hours. Marilyn and I just held each other; we didn’t know what to do. They came in and asked us to identify her body. I was not completely sure that Marilyn could handle that so I went down to the morgue to do it. As they pulled my baby girl out of that metal freezer box, I broke down; maybe I couldn’t handle it either.

I went back upstairs to find Marilyn and we cried and yelled together. After a few hours we decided to go home. Marilyn went straight to bed and cried herself to sleep, I tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. I honestly didn’t believe that our baby girl was gone. I climbed the stairs to her room and sat in the doorway looking around her room. I looked at the high school pictures, baby pictures, and pictures of family. I broke down when my eyes laid on a picture taken of Adele and I the day she was born. I got up, locked her door, and went to lie next to Marilyn. I remained staring at the ceiling trying to recall the past 24 hours.

This morning I woke Adele up to tell her to get ready for class at the University of Chicago and work. She grumbled and refused to get up, but got up like a shot of an espresso when I told her I would make her breakfast. She ran downstairs ready for her delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes with syrup. She told us she would be late for class and left giving Marilyn and I a kiss on the cheek, promising to be home later that night. What could have happened?

Marilyn woke me up the next morning saying that Jeff called and he told us to come to the precinct. Jeff called us into the interrogation room again and before we even sat down, Marilyn asked, “How was she killed?”

Jeff responded, “She was beaten to death.” This caused Marilyn to scream out and shake her head in disbelief.

“Where did you find her?” I wondered.

“We found her in a dumpster that we believe is far away from the scene which we are looking for,” Jeff responded.

I asked, “By who?”

“We do not know that yet, it has only been a day,” Jeff said.

“Then work faster!” Marilyn demanded. “You better find out who did this, or I swear…”
Then, Marilyn stormed out of the room leaving me and Jeff sitting there in silence. I was trying to piece all of the information together in my head, trying to absorb but it was just too much.

I stood up and told Jeff, “This better be your number one priority, to find who killed my daughter and your niece, so help me God Jeff. You better find out who did this.”

6 months later, with those months filled with false suspects, disappointment, and resulting in no killer; I had to develop my own investigation. I timed out the whole entire day of the murder. I went to Adele’s school and to her work for them to tell me the specific hours and minutes that she was in and out , and what time she left and which direction she was headed.

I discovered that Adele left work early and no one saw her after that. During the investigation we discovered that she was found at a random apartment a few hours later with her clothes ripped and bruises all over her body. Jeff told me that she looked “peaceful” when they found her. I couldn’t comprehend how an 18 year old girl looked “peaceful” when she was raped and beaten to death. That was also a shocking reveal my daughter was raped by someone and whoever it was, was going to pay.

To find out that my daughter was sexually assaulted broke Marilyn and my heart. We crumpled when we found out, it was as if we found out she died all over again. Marilyn would rant and cry over Adele’s death. It got to the point where I had to take Marilyn to the doctor to get her some medicine so she could sleep at night.

I was calm and timid on the outside but on the inside all hell was breaking loose. Who would do something like this? They found DNA on Adele’s body when she was first murdered but somehow the evidence was lost. I went ballistic, how could a police department lose something so vital for a case?

Although, we found out that on Adele’s body they found a piece of cloth that cops used on their uniforms. This led me to some guesses. I asked for the schedule of everyone in the precinct on the day my daughter died. Due to this I got cooperation from the chief saying that he was sorry for my loss.

My brother Jeff, my friends Jimmy and Thomas were found to be absent around the time that my daughter was gone from work. I investigated every single one of them with the chief next to me. I honestly felt like a cop, but I would do nothing to stop searching for my daughter’s killer. Marilyn knew how much this meant to me and it meant something to her so she encouraged it and said that I better find him. My brother and friends stories said that they were innocent but I went to look for their sources and asked around.

Jimmy and Thomas were clean but Jeff lied. He said that he was with his girlfriend Sarah for a late lunch, but in reality they were on a break. I tried not to give away that I was investigating Jeff, and he didn’t seem to notice.

Marilyn and I invited Jeff to dinner to get some things straight. When we started to talk about Adele over steak, Jeff was more uncomfortable than we were; which came to our surprise. Jeff excused himself from dinner saying that he needed to be at work early the next morning. Marilyn and I were curious as to why Jeff was so nervous.

The chief called Jeff into his office the next morning and let me know what was going on. I planned for it to be a set up. I hoped and prayed that Jeff didn’t do it but I had a hunch that he did. I wondered why? What did my daughter ever due to him? Why would her uncle due something like this?

I walked into the room and Jeff looked nervous. I sat across from him and stared straight into his eyes causing him to look away.

“Hi Jeff,” I said starting the conversation.

Jeff responded nonchalantly, “What’s up bro, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, the Chief called me in to help with Adele’s case the time is ticking,” I said playing on.

“Wow, it’s that serious is it,” Jeff said.

“It is, it really is. I have a few questions for you Jeff,” I didn’t wait for him to object I barged in knowing the questions I wanted to ask.

I started off with, “Where were you the day Adele died?”

“I was at work of course,” responded Jeff.

“No you weren’t from 1-5 you left, I asked everyone. You might have not checked out but you weren’t here. I asked your partner and he said you didn’t come back until 5:30. Then you received the message that Adele was found murdered in a random apartment. How does that work?” I questioned.

“I had a prior engagement to attend to.”

“And what would that have been?” I asked.

“I went to the market to pick up some flowers.”

“Flowers for who?”

“For Sarah of course,” Jeff responded as if I was stupid.

“What type of flowers were they?”

“They were purple tulips. Does that make me a bad guy,” he said feigning innocence.

“You mean the purple tulips that were found on the counter in the apartment my daughter was murdered in,” I accused.

Jeff’s eyes turned wide and he said nothing. After a few minutes he said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

I laid a picture in front of him knowing that he would recognize himself from leaving the apartment building.

“You may be smart Jeff. You lost evidence on purpose, you deleted these pictures from the apartment building, you tried to act as if you were doing something for Sarah when you actually wanted to get into my daughter’s pants,” I said raising my voice.

“It’s not like that,” Jeff replied.

“Then tell me what happened,” I demanded grabbing his collar.

The chief knocked on the door warning me to let him go and to hear him out.

“That afternoon I asked Adele to come to the address of the random apartment. I told her that I needed to tell her something important. I told her that I did not know what to do since Sarah broke up with me, and asked for advice to get Sarah back, which was all a lie. She told me to buy her some flowers, take her on a date, and just do everything I could to make it work. But truth was I didn’t want Sarah, I wanted Adele. You’ve got to admit Dave your daughter was hot. I forced myself on her trying to get closer, but she refused. She said to just let her leave and she wouldn’t tell you what happened. I couldn’t let her, I wanted her so bad. I grabbed her hair and yanked her on the bed. She tried to refuse but I told her to hush. And you know one thing led to another or you could say I led myself to another. When I was done she tried to run and scream. I yanked her back and accidentally shoved her into the counter. She was unconscious for some time, and during that time I had a “few” drinks. I was a tad bit drunk and she got up screaming and crying, yelling for her dad; you. She was reaching for her phone, but I couldn’t let her call you or the cops. So I chucked her phone across the apartment and banged her head and I just kept punching and punching. Dave you have to believe that I didn’t know what to do. She was unconscious and I’m pretty sure she was dead. So I cleaned up the scene, told someone to call 911, and got the hell out of there. I am truly shocked that you caught me though,” Jeff confessed.

After hearing all of the bullshit, my anger exceeded its maximum. And all hell broke loose. I jumped across the table and decked Jeff in the face. I kept punching and punching, all I could see was red. I yelled, “How could you, you son of a b**** she was your neice?” “You are the worst human being and brother anyone could ever ask for, you ruined my family’s life and I will never be able to forgive you. You deserve to be dead! Not her! You killed her and it looks like you have no regrets.”

The Chief and a few officers pulled me off of Jeff but I was still kicking and yelling. They picked Jeff up off the ground and said “Jeff Adams you are under arrest for the murder of Adele Adams. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the state.”

“I hope you rot in jail,” I yelled down the hall.

My heart was completely shattered, and the betrayal I felt was unbearable. Having to tell Marilyn would be the hardest part since I know she would be out for Jeff’s blood. Why did I have to dig so deep? Why did it have to be him?

I looked up to the heavens and said “Adele Marilyn Adams, I am so sorry that you couldn’t live the life you wanted and it had to end short. But always remember your mother and I love you. Forever and always, to the Moon and Back, dad."