June 15, 2021 • 44 mins
Danyé's mother Melissa finds her son dead and requests help from the media. Our hosts make contact with her, and the investigation begins.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide or self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline at one eight hundred two seventy three eight two
(00:24):
five five, or text the Crisis text line at seven
four one seven four one. It was October sixteenth, two
thousand eighteen. Then I decided to lay down in despare bedroom.
(00:46):
Danie was in the kitchen having a discussion with his
uncle Danny. I ended up having a crazy dream about
a anther and the panther was pulling on my hand,
(01:07):
holding on my hand and arms, and we were trying
to hold each other. And I woke up to my
arm and hands throbbing, and it hurt it so bad.
And the dream, the dream, it's get it alarmed me.
It scared me so bad that I decided to call
(01:31):
my husband, Derek at work. He finally walked in the door,
which was probably thirty to forty minutes later. When he
comes in, he notices the lights are on in the basement.
I'm the type of mother where I'm very specific about
leaving the power on because I know that it runs
(01:54):
the build up. Knowing that it was I that the
lights were still on in the basement. Derek, he yells
down for Danyae and there was no answer, and he says,
Danyae is not down there. So I'm like what. I
(02:15):
run downstairs myself and I didn't see Danyae, but I
saw the brick by his sleeping area, and so I
get alarm, like was this brick? And I run up
the steps to see if danye was outside something. And
(02:42):
I opened up the porch door and something tells me
to just look around. My attention was drawn over to
the left side of the yard and I see my
chair on the ground and I start walking slowly. Uh,
(03:11):
and I something was there was a light. It must
have been the sunshining down just rising and I see, uh,
some legs. Did she think? What was wrong at all?
(03:36):
A baby? And men? Damn? Hello? Keep coming with going
on like you didn't get work with? Okay, hold the person?
(04:00):
You all right? I can't go get dny B. I
can't see him treating in the backyard. Oh can't you hate?
Good place? Got the ambulan? Yeah, just don't look like
(04:22):
other things. The guy have to want the boy to okay,
I'll listen to its meaning, can go down. We'll move
him down now some minute, work down like this, we
like put up right. Hello, may court, you want to
(04:44):
come in the shape just to go there and now
not how to do more? You looking? What you're looking
at is the aftermath of the grand jury deciding not
(05:08):
to indict Officer Wilson. A young man found hanging from
a tree in October. His mom believes someone murdered her
son targeting him. Danye became an activist in the wake
(05:29):
of the shooting death of Michael Brown by a white
police officer. That's why Melissa mckinn is wants St. Louis
County police to dig deeper to her son's death. He
was not suicidal. This is after the uprising, the death
of Donye Dion Jones, And in my head, I was
(05:58):
just trying to figure out, why would he do this?
It made no sense. Why would he do this? As
if he would answer or somebody would answer, you know,
But for the life of me, I just couldnot figure
out how my son, who I had just seen before
(06:20):
I went to sleep, that was in good spirits, that
was so excited about going somewhere, and how can he
go from that to hanging from a tree in the
backyard for me to find him like that. I was lost.
My brother and Derek especially was like it didn't even
(06:42):
look right. It was suspect. She was telling us to
cut it down. With some of that time period I
was taken, I was trying to find the flash on
the phone, the flashlight because it was in the dark.
I took like seven pictures. So that's why that's why
I hesitated someone. I'm like, we're more done to show you.
Anything else is like that that can happen after then,
(07:03):
you know what I'm saying, It didn't look right. You know,
everything that didn't look right, so you know, he said,
let's take pictures, and they can't undo pictures. You know
everything that was that was there a shorts down is
you know that the sheet and everything. As I looked
out the window, the back window to see what they
(07:24):
were doing to my side, I do remember looking looking
back there and they pull me away from the police
pulled me away from the window, and so I started
looking out the front and I see the detective which
(07:46):
was the lead detective in the case, and I remember
him because he had the black eye. He was laughing
and it irritated me. It Aaron irritated me so badly
that I asked the officers that were inside it was.
(08:06):
It was a black female officer and a black male officer. Um,
I said, is this what you guys? Do you find
this funny? You think that this is cool to be
laughing at the scene while my son is out there
laying dead. I ran to the back window again and
(08:28):
I saw some officers laughing again, but by this time
the black officer the female officer grabbed me and they
had me sit on the couch. They said that I
couldn't look back there, and I said, I didn't understand
why you remember that anything that struck you about being
(08:51):
be detected with the black eye, very nonchalant, almost as
if he wanted to harry up and get through this,
like he did not care. Yeah, it was more like
we were wasting his time, like he had somewhere to be,
almost as if my son wasn't dead. Did you get
(09:13):
the impression that you knew who you were? Yes, And
the reason why is because he was nasty. He was
nasty more towards me than anybody it And and the
crazy part is right after seeing me out in the
front on the porch screaming and punching and fighting, he
was laughing. He as soon as I went to the else,
(09:34):
he's he's laughing. It was almost as if he couldn't stop.
My neighbor saw, my family saw. It was almost like
a taunting because you can kind of like find something
funny one moment and uh it came out, but to
(09:57):
continue to do it one that it affected me. It
made us have to really look into who was this detective.
So it's just a boisterous laugh. Yeah, yes, I just
remember being I was crying in and out. I was
out of it. But I do remember seeing the lead
(10:21):
detective him the card over to whoever was sitting next
to me, which was my husban Darry. I remember him
saying that it is what it looks like, it's going
to be a suicide from us, and I'm like, I
don't understand, Like why I don't understand? And um, he said,
(10:44):
can you think of anything that why he would probably do?
And I'm like, I'm trying to think what would be
this serious for him to to end it? And not
just ended, but to do it so that I can
find him out there like that. And that's when I'm like, no,
(11:05):
not not protective, over protective, Danya. He would not do it,
especially so that I would find him. But why do
it anyway when everything that he had going on? Why
would you do it? And I remember continuing to say that,
and I said, because his his business. He was downstairs
(11:29):
just doing um the Google search that I watched him.
I saw him looking at his phone at a video
about his business. He had just started his business. He
was so excited and they said, could have failed. I said,
he was sitting down there. He was excited. He was
talking to my brother. So he said, what was the
(11:54):
last conversation? I said, I remember him asking me to
watch his clothes because as he had somewhere to go,
and he was rushing me, and he seemed so excited
about going somewhere, and I told him, don't rush me.
I'll get it. I'll watch it. And so I remember
coming to the steps and when I saw him watching
the video, I said, I'm proud of you, dude, and
(12:16):
he said he shook his head and started looking back
at the video. That was the last time I saw him,
But the last time I saw him, I was proud.
I was proud of if clothes were clean, he was
(12:39):
ready to go. He was not suicidal, and that's why
Melissa mckenneths wants St. Louis County police to dig deeper
into her son's death. On October seventeenth, and she found
(13:00):
any hanging from this tree in their backyard with bruises
on his face. McKenna says the two year old wasn't
depressed and was starting to real estate business. She believes
there's more to this story. McKennis, a prominent Ferguson activists,
told me she thinks her family is being targeted. In
the last two months. She says they've been getting death
threats through social media. The St. Louis County Cordner says
(13:21):
Danye's autopsy won't be ready for weeks and they will
not give news for any preliminary reports. St. Louis County
Police told us for now this remains a suicide investigation.
Both the family and police did say there was a
chair near his body. However, family members told me the
sheets used to hang him did not come from their
house and then not used to tie the sheets were advanced,
(13:44):
so they don't believe dan Ye would have been capable
of making Eleven days after his death, with Danye now
laid to rest, Melissa made a tough decision. She posted
to do her Facebook page the photograph her brother Daniel
had taken of Danye hanging from the tree. She captioned it,
(14:04):
they lynched my baby. The post went viral, which spurred
a few local news outlets to interview Melissa at her home,
but most concluded that they would await the Medical Examiner's
office and their final report on the matter. Knowing how
the medical examiner was likely to find, Melissa felt she
had to get out in front of it. The mother
(14:26):
of Danie Jones how the press conference yesterday, hoping police
would dig further into the death of her son. Police
originally ruled his death a suicide, but his mother's insisting
that her son did not take his own life. Instead,
she says he was murdered. A mother knows her son,
A mother knows her child. Danye Dione Jones would not
(14:48):
do that. Danye Diana Jones, full of energy, spunky, just
full of spunk, had a lot a lot to little
fore and you knew it. One by one. Danie's family
members stepped up to the microphone. First, his stepfather Derek.
One thing I know, he would never Dunythine moved close.
(15:14):
His uncle Daniel, Oh yeah, Jones, and my niece and
my other nephews. Very closest thing I have to my
own children, because I don't have any children. He had vision,
he had plans, vision to do the wholesale real estate.
They've been properties, his sister, Militia Na. We've been together
(15:39):
for his whole life, his whole like, and he loved us,
and he wouldn't go out that way. Melissa made sure
to lay out what she saw as contradictions to the
suicide hypothesis that was being put out by the police.
The data. It happened, he had enough on his face,
(16:03):
His wrists had invitations on him. Okay, his pants were
rolled down, not pooped down. They were rolled down. They
weren't scrubs. Weren't scrubs, they were pants. The knots and
the sheets that did not come from our home. We're
(16:23):
navy knots. My son was not in any military, not
a boy Scott, none of that. Finally, Melissa tried to
make it clear that they knew Danyae as only family could.
We're not a denial. We just know Danyelle. He was
with us. He was goofy with us. If you ever
(16:45):
saw him anything different than goofy's because he would not
open up to you and show his goofie side. But
my son was silly. He was silly, he was happy.
I know my son. To understand the story of Melissa
(17:11):
and Donya, we have to go back a little over
four years. On August nine, Mike Brown Jr. Was shot
and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Witnesses said
that Mike Brown's last words were hands up, don't shoot.
(17:36):
The killing sparked an uprising in Ferguson in the wider
North St. Louis County area, with the predominantly black residents
demanding justice. When later that year, a grand jury refused
to indict officer Wilson, again, people took to the streets.
What you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict officer Wilson, or a love
(18:00):
play a symbol. You need to disperse immediately or you
will be subject to arrest. Do it now. Oh, this
uprising and Ferguson was arguably where the wider Black Lives
(18:24):
Matter movement was born, and Melissa was right there from
day one. She was eating lunch with her younger son, Javan,
when they heard the news that Mike Brown had been killed,
and they rushed to Canfield Green apartments where a crowd
was gathering. And I sped over there as if it
was one of my children, and there Mike Brown was
(18:46):
laying on the ground, and I just looked at him
and my eyes started tearing up because I started thinking
about Danyee and Givonne, you know, and I was like,
I couldn't imagine. Melissa came out to the site of
the protests and Ferguson day after day after day. She
(19:07):
dedicated herself to activism, demanding police accountability for the killing
of young black men, and by when protests erupted, demanding
that officer Jason Stockley beheld accountable for his killing of
Anthony Lamar Smith. Melissa had a lot of experience under
her belt, and she was seen as one of the
many rising leaders in the movement. Here she is during
(19:29):
the Jason Stockley protests, at the head of a rally
of what looks to be hundreds, if not thousands of people.
The crowd is motionless, waiting to begin their march while
Melissa amps them up over her bullhorn. Are you ready?
(19:57):
Melissa organized the shutdowns for the Jason Stock League case.
The real bit when that we did was downtown. It
was roughly around five thousand people and it was huge.
Melissa and her fellow activists were intentionally trying to cause
(20:19):
financial strain to the city of St. Louis, figuring it
was the only leverage they had to make city leaders
respond to their demands that would hurt them more than
just as being out there and just chance. They don't
care about that. When we hit their pockets, it was
more like the city was pissed. What did you hear
about the numbers of the economic toll um seven seventeen
(20:41):
or was it seventeen or twenty one million? Today were
PISTE office. So that's why I was getting the threats.
The people of St. Louis who participated in the uprising
that began in would quickly learn that calling the police
to account was a dangerous prospect. Senate will come to order.
The center from the fourteens has requested a point a
(21:04):
personal privilege Center four teens you may pursue. Thank you,
Mr President. This morning, I woke up and I found
out another young man from my district um was murdered
in the same way, in the same fashion as two
or three other people who were active in Ferguson, people
who were protesting on the streets to be heard. The
(21:28):
people who have been murdered at this point were all
individuals who were seen in the media. That was then
Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle Nadal on the morning of
May five, speaking into the Missouri General Assembly record about
the death of Edward Crawford Jr. Crawford became famous after
(21:51):
a newspaper photographer took a picture of him throwing a
sparking tear gas canister away from a crowd of people
during the Ferguson uprising. He is a well liked father
of four, and the image of him wearing an American
flag shirt, his long braids flying behind him as he
held the fiery canister, well it became iconic. Late in
the night before the morning of Representative Chappelle Nadal's speech,
(22:14):
Crawford was shot in the backseat of a car and died. St.
Louis Metropolitan police department told NBC News that Crawford shot
himself in the backseat of a car while it was moving.
That's according to two female witnesses who were seated in
the front of the car. Details were few when Chapelle
Nadal spoke on the floor, but it would later become
clear that Crawford's sister was driving the car he was
(22:35):
in when he shot himself in the head. But Chappelle
Nadal's concerns were not unfounded. Another young man named DeAndre
Joshua had been found shot in the head in the
back seat of a car that someone had tried to
set on fire unsuccessfully. St. Louis County Police and on
Wednesday they were investigating the death of a black man
(22:55):
found shot and set on fire near an area where
rioting erupted after a grand jury did not indict a
white policeman in the fatal shooting of a black teenager,
Police said the body of twenty year old Giandre Joshua
was discovered around nine am on Tuesday in a car
parked near the Canfield Green apartment complex in the St.
Louis suburb of Ferguson. Though DeAndre Joshua's family told the
(23:18):
New York Times that he never joined in the marches
for Mike Brown. Both DeAndre and his brother were coincidentally
childhood friends with Dorian Johnson, who was the young man
walking with Mike Brown Jr. When he was killed. Then
another young man was shot and killed, his body placed
in the backseat of his car that this time was
successfully set ablais. His name was Darren Seals, and he
(23:41):
was found murdered on September six. Seals wasn't so much
a protester as a budding revolutionary. Here he is in
a video that he made of himself. He's speaking about
the up and coming Black Lives Matter movement and how
it's detracting energy away from Ferguson. Black lives a matter
of ship. It's blowing up. And if you notice as
(24:04):
is blowing up, You're not hearing about Mike Brown anymore.
Nothing about Dan Wilson anymore. Nothing handing about the you know,
the Ferguson Police Department anymore. We're not hearing about none.
It's corrupt ship about McCullen's a nixton. Not heard about
none of this ship no more. All you're hearing about
Black Lives Matter now they took the energy away from first.
(24:25):
It's still nice ship. It's still nice Shoine. A lot
of cats move to jail for us to be the
main topic in the media. A lot of cats restate life.
Spook got shot in head. She could have she could
be dead right now, you know what I mean. A
lot of ship happened for this ship to grow into
what it became. There was an opportunity to really fight back.
Then we'll make a change in Ferguson and Missouri as
(24:46):
a whole. But as you see now they are on
to the next city, then the next city, then next
city in the next city, being superstars off our ship
we created here. Well we're saying, act still like them.
And I know the police was tasting them because they
was kicking the ass. They was never not kicking the ass.
(25:07):
The only time she wasn't kicking the asses between the
rain drops. That's the only break she gave. This is
longtime St. Louis activist Anthony Shahid describing to us how
both Melissa and Darren Seals were powerful organizers and how
he believes this made them targets of police reprisal and
maybe worse, this was on the front line she stayed
(25:29):
on the front line. She was never not on the
front line. Those people, they would do anything to try
to take the stamele system, Melissa, And how can you
take the stame out in BacT And she thought of
talking about how these people heard gun shields, how the
police kept on working with them. In March of six
months before his death, Darren participated in a protest at
(25:52):
Donald Trump's St. Louis campaign rally. After he left, he
was pulled over by the police. Ultimately about eight or
nine police officers swarmed around his vehicle, in which Darren
was driving with his younger brother. A bystander filmed the
incident on his cell phone. So I'm out here and
(26:14):
I guess it's considered ferguson right off of West floor, saying,
and they got one too, three folds five police like
five six maan jump out boys with the young dude over.
That's actually one of the focusing processes that they got.
When the police finally released Darren, he comes over and
(26:38):
speaks with the man who filmed the incident. So we're
telling out some paperwork for my mother and she's in
the hospital right now. As I'm pulling off, I get
pulled over right here. They pulled out point of guns
and they point the whole They pointed guns on me
and my in my fortune, all the brothers focusing p D.
They went up to the car. They pulled them out,
grab you by my heart, slammed me off the car,
(26:59):
pull me in cough first of my car illegally without
my permission. They say you should go to the Trump rally.
I said yeah. He said, you post them about up
on Facebook. I said yeah, I said, what's that illegal? Now?
He said, no, that's nothing wrong with that, but you
might want you you might want to pick your enemies better.
Threats were apparently common amongst Ferguson activists. So Darren Seals
(27:23):
was at that Trump rather as well, Yeah, he's pulled
over leading and Trump and someone happened to film that.
And then he basically said that one of the cops
told him that he better be careful who he makes say.
And that's exactly what they said to us. You mat
be caringful. You better choose your your fights, your battles. Yeah,
you better choose your battles. Can be playing you play
(27:45):
in the daily game. Yeah, I was like whatever, Yeah,
I remember her calling me after rallies, and she was like, says, like,
they are really like threatening me. This is Melissa's sister, Toya.
She can recall many times in which Melissa told her
people were threatening her anonymously. Okay, so we have a
(28:07):
weird thing, like we laughed at things that shouldn't be
laughed at. So of course you know I'm laughing, like, wait,
you gotta aftery And she was like, no, they're like
send me messages talking about um, I was right behind you.
You you're just that easy to get or who's saying
oh oh yeah, like I would get messages like that,
And the one that really stuck out was you're not
(28:29):
hard to get. I was. We was right behind you
at the rally, at the march, you know. And sometimes
the threats came in more ominous ways. There's something that
we didn't even think somebody would take to do. The
voice you're hearing is that of Dante Carter. He too
was an activist in Ferguson waking up in the morning,
(28:51):
I don't repeatly protested. You see a wop tied up
like it's ready to hang with these news and and
it really get it. Did SOMETI that we changed to explain.
That's why we took the picture that the world that
was going on. What Dante is describing here is that
on the morning of August thirty one, outside one of
the activist tent encampments on Florescent Avenue, someone had left
(29:14):
a news for them to find. They posted a picture
of it on Twitter. If you look at it, it's
very clearly and specifically a hangman's news tied with some
rough twine. We even heard that people on Twitter like
hang them niggers. So now waking up a scene and
it is nothing but police office right up there, even
(29:34):
before I guess, even even before the sinsident happened. So
we took upon ourself episode the world was going on.
I really is. We got inducted into this situation by
flat out being at war with the police. Like there's
no way to the water that one down. So we
really don't have much of a benefit of a doubt,
like you know, like like anything we say is going
(29:56):
to be confessed by mainstream society because they think we're crazy.
To you. This is tef Po. He's a rapper and
activist from St. Louis, a one time Harvard fellow who
today runs the Boycott Times, and he also happens to
be Molliss's cousin. We asked him to describe for us
what life was like in North St. Louis County for
black people. It is a known fact in St. Louis
(30:19):
that that area is notorious for fucked up police. We
grow up telling each other like, Yo, if you live
in the county after nine o'clock, I'm not coming to
get you at the end of the night, one o'clock,
two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. How many people
we got with us, four or five of us fun
that we're not getting somebody sleeping on somebody couch. Bro,
(30:39):
I'll take you home in the morning. I ain't driving
through the county at night. And if and if I
do drive through the county, it's gonna be two people
in my car. I'm not rolling. I'm not riding five
beat four or four or five black dudes in a
car driving through North County. Bro. We're getting pulled over periods.
My brother got shot on Christmas Eves in Ferguson leaving
my mom's crib. My brother's land there leading out on
(31:00):
the parking lot, and he has to hear cops stepping
over him and you know, dropping in bombs, calling, you know,
filthy niggers. All they do is shoot each other. Uh,
you know, who gives the funk? If he dies. He's
sitting here gasping his for his final breaths, possibly, and
they're asking him who shot you? You know? Who shot you?
You know? And that's just how we get treated, man,
(31:23):
That's just how we get treated. Test is younger than
Melissa and older than Donya, but he did know Danya
and told us a bit about what he was like.
He wasn't really a negative person and he was always
kind of smiling. He was always on the goal. Uh.
He was a person that was doing things and he
had a very bright energy. He wasn't a part of
(31:44):
like anything drastically negative. Danye wasn't that type of person.
I didn't expect to never see him again. When I
did see him, I didn't see him in transit doing
things where I would have to be like, yo, I'm
as to report back to his mom finding him in
the backyard hung up. I will say, that's the strangest
way that you could commit suicide. The whole situation, it's
(32:04):
a bunch of I don't know. And that's why even
with this situation, more so than a lot of the
other situations where people are saying folks have mysteriously been
killed with Dan, hanging yourself in your backyard for a
young kid is a weird way for them to commit suicide.
Man tying yourself up with a sheet and a chair.
(32:25):
I mean, that's that's stuff people do in jail, bro
when they when they know they're about the faith life,
you know what I'm saying, life in North County and
his experience as an activist left to have feeling that
the police wouldn't reliably look into the death of his cousin,
similar to when Darren Seals was killed. They didn't really
do an investigation. They're not going to really do an
(32:45):
investigation with this situation. I'm not saying that it did
did or didn't happen. I'm saying that on Danye. I'll
say it's very candidly knowing that this will make me
a target, saying it's coming out of my mouth. The
police here, they're not going to investigate adequate to investigate
the depth does any prominent activists or anybody attached to
those activists. I do feel like, when you start to
(33:08):
turn to the pages on the local police, you may
find some things. If I feel like, if there's something
to be discovered, I would not be surprised whatsoever if
the police have their dirty paws all over this. Hellos, Hi,
(33:29):
thanks for the callback. We reached out to Melissa in December,
two months after Danye died, hoping to picture on the
idea of a long form investigated podcast that could potentially
uncover new information about the death of her son. Now,
I remember you guys sending a message, but at the
time I was getting so many emails and messages and
(33:51):
all that mess and then I didn't know who to
trust because I wasn't trusting nobody. It's good that we
can tell about it now, but at that time I
was just I was in a very very bad space
about everybody that I came in contact with. You know,
John and I both had experience working as writers, researchers,
(34:13):
and documentary filmmakers. When we saw what happened to Donye
and that Melissa was making a call out wanting people
to help her draw attention to the situation, we figured
we'd get in touch. When she called us back, I
was at a gas station. Our goal is to to
to make a podcast that will spend like a deep
amount of time exploring what happened with your son. This
(34:38):
probably needs a couple of people who have a little
bit of investigative skills, who know how to like, who
will actually spend some time. I don't know how you
feel about what I just said, but sure, I guess
we can work on it. You know, those people all
that were sitting outdoors, sitting outside at home, and it
(35:00):
in taken into consideration. Um, that man he had been
threatened before because he had the break um by dead
like he was waiting for somebody. A lot of people
keep asking why did I take his picture? Um? And
(35:25):
I didn't take his picture. My brother did a question
that people ask all the time, you know, um, why
did I put it out? And which I don't even
understand why they don't understand wolves because if I hadn't
put it out, it would have been just like all
of the other is something that oh wow, that's horrible
(35:48):
thing that happened another person, and then that that's it.
But I just know that the one detective that gave
us his business card where he loved the one with
a black guy did not give us his business card,
gave us UM a card for the airport police. That's
(36:11):
the one that gave us the most problem. I don't
want to say so much talk about a lot of
things over the phone, so okay, thank you, alright, alright back. Wow.
Melissa was interested in talking, but not on her phone.
(36:31):
We asked if she would be more comfortable if we
sent her a burner phone, and she said yes. We
shipped one off to her and waited. In the meantime,
the St. Louis County Medical Examiners report on Danya's death
was released and found, just as Melissa suspected it would,
that Dane had died by suicide. We called the St.
Louis County Police for a comment. Hey you're talking police. Hi,
(36:56):
thank you so much for getting back to me on
This is Sergeant show On McGuire, who was then a
spokesman for County p D. It's still an active investigation
for us, but we've but we've been ever since the
start of this in our detectives. What crimes against persons,
you know where they're they're the ones that were called
to the scene. UM, all signs right off the bad
(37:17):
point that this was a suicide. So I kind of
remained that as the investigation continued, as an investigation even
proceeded from there, um after they talked to family and
friends and physical evidence at the scene, and now even
the medical examiners report has been released. Obviously that's a
big part of our case as well. Um. But but
it's one of those things that it never really lost
(37:38):
focus on it being a suicide. And we were pretty
straightforward on ever since the beginning on that when when
his mother was out on social media. And that's the
thing here about to John, I mean, we we're not
really releasing too much of this is why it's a suicide,
and you know, this is what we have and this
is what we found out about don Ye and that
type of stuff, because it doesn't really help anybody. Know,
(38:00):
we understand that his family and friends are are going
through a rough time, especially you know, weeks after after
this kind of breaks and she's you know, going to
social media and trying to say that you know, people
murdered her son and that type of stuff, and you know,
we just we never get into those kind of engagements
with a victims, uh family, We're not gonna be We
(38:20):
don't win anything on that. We know what the back
to the case are. We know, you know, what the
Texas are investigating and what they saw and who they
talked to and the medical Examberage report and all that
type of stuff. So we we never are ever going
to go out there and say, well, you know, Johnnie's
mom is wrong now at this moment, are you know?
With the medical examerage report being released, that helps with
(38:41):
our investigation. So now it's more more or less of
pretty much completing the paperwork and once that paperwork is done,
you'll be able to request a copy. It's just it's
still active right now. About how long do you think
it will be until it's closed and the report becomes available.
They talked to the lieutenant in that and he said
it's more or less it could be a week down
the road, that could be a month down the road.
(39:02):
He doesn't really know. I don't really have a good
time frame for you. And not saying that Danie isn't
the form to us, but it's one of those things
of them just having time to finishing up their report, um,
you know, and administratively, and that's kind of where we're
at right now. Sergeant McGuire seemed very confident that the
Medical Examiner's office had gotten it right, and his statement
makes it seem like a lot of people who had
(39:24):
the low down on Danyae's life and mental state had
spoken with the police, and that these conversations gave detectives
confidence in their suicide hypothesis. He made it seem like
it would all be laid bare in a few short
weeks when the police issued their final report on the matter.
I did want to ask about one more thing though
(39:45):
she claims that in the time leading up to his death,
that there were like threats against her family or that
they were like menacing people who had been around her home,
was that it all looked at um. I believe that
was looked at eventually. She did not report that stuff
immediately to detectives. It's part of her in this investigation.
They didn't know anything about that. And as time went on,
(40:06):
when she she had the public Facebook post and told
Facebook and said us, um, you know, that's that's when
obviously detectives were interested in talking to her about that.
But it was definitely looked into eventually. The only way
(40:26):
that I would hear Danielle's voices if I would make
myself here, you know. Then I would not hear him
saying my or hear him laughing downstairs, you know, because
he would be down and watching TV. And now I
(40:46):
hear his crazy laugh. Sometimes I can see him and
the kids should talking to Dick. Sometimes I can hear
see him on the red chase with his feet, his
long legs and his feet, you know. That was his
favorite seat in the house, was the ran chase, and
(41:11):
he would sitting there chasing. When he talked. He had
this very very deep voice, big boy before years old
yet and I were here. Sometimes I were here him
(41:43):
and Militia and Javad with that inside jokes, and they'll
all be just giggling and laughing so hard, and I'm
just sitting there like I want to laugh, but they
didn't want to say certain things because it probably was dirty. Yeah,
but I can always say him laughing and so like,
(42:06):
it's not that I'm into now, it's not that we're
into now. My son was just at a place in
his life that he was more excited than I've ever
seen him. He had something that he really was looking
forward to. He said, just watch, I'm gonna take care
of you more tell me I didn't have to go
(42:28):
back for work, so I quick. He said, UM, that
got you, But don't believe them. We knew if we
wanted to help figure out what had happened to don Ye,
(42:48):
we would have to start digging. We needed to pour
over the details of the medical examiners and the police
department's investigations to know what they did and did not
take into account. We didn't know what we would find,
and the only thing we promised to do was to
give Melissa the benefit of the doubt, to not look
at her as though she were crazy or that she
was in denial, but to give real consideration to at
(43:10):
least the possibility that Dane didn't die by suicide from
what we could tell. That's what she never got from
the investigators, a little benefit of the doubt, someone who
would look at Dane's death and keep in mind the context,
the context of history, that of violence against black people
in our country in general, and that of Melissa personally
(43:32):
and the world she lived in. That's next time on
After the Uprising. After the Uprising is directed, produced, investigated,
written and reported by myself, Rainovschelski and John Duffy. John
Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy was producer, sound engineering,
design and mixed by Josh Condon. Executive producers were Matt
(43:54):
McDonough and Tina x Ros for Now This, Brett Kushner
for Group nine Media, and Jeff Borave was executive in
charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and Bradley Rayford were consulting producers.
Eliza Craig was assistant producer and did additional reporting. Malory
Keenoy was a writer's assistant. Kristin McVicker and Taya Wilson
were production assistants, and Haley Klesmer was a post production assistant.
Fact checking by Alison Humes, theme song and other music
(44:17):
by Zachary Walter, legal by Keith Sclar and Peter Yazy.
Special thanks to Ann Frado, Danny Gonzalez, Barbara Copple, Alex Lester,
Bethan Macaluso, Emily Maronoff, Ruth Vaka, and the Reporter's Committee
for Freedom of the Press. After the Uprising is a
production of Double asterisk I, Heart Media and Now This
in association with True Stories. You can find us on
Twitter and Facebook. If you have useful information about the
(44:38):
death of Danye Jones or anything we've covered. Please leave
a message on our tip line at three four seven
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Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide or self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline at one eight hundred two seventy three eight two
(00:24):
five five, or text the Crisis text line at seven
four one seven four one. It was October sixteenth, two
thousand eighteen. Then I decided to lay down in despare bedroom.
(00:46):
Danie was in the kitchen having a discussion with his
uncle Danny. I ended up having a crazy dream about
a anther and the panther was pulling on my hand,
(01:07):
holding on my hand and arms, and we were trying
to hold each other. And I woke up to my
arm and hands throbbing, and it hurt it so bad.
And the dream, the dream, it's get it alarmed me.
It scared me so bad that I decided to call
(01:31):
my husband, Derek at work. He finally walked in the door,
which was probably thirty to forty minutes later. When he
comes in, he notices the lights are on in the basement.
I'm the type of mother where I'm very specific about
leaving the power on because I know that it runs
(01:54):
the build up. Knowing that it was I that the
lights were still on in the basement. Derek, he yells
down for Danyae and there was no answer, and he says,
Danyae is not down there. So I'm like what. I
(02:15):
run downstairs myself and I didn't see Danyae, but I
saw the brick by his sleeping area, and so I
get alarm, like was this brick? And I run up
the steps to see if danye was outside something. And
(02:42):
I opened up the porch door and something tells me
to just look around. My attention was drawn over to
the left side of the yard and I see my
chair on the ground and I start walking slowly. Uh,
(03:11):
and I something was there was a light. It must
have been the sunshining down just rising and I see, uh,
some legs. Did she think? What was wrong at all?
(03:36):
A baby? And men? Damn? Hello? Keep coming with going
on like you didn't get work with? Okay, hold the person?
(04:00):
You all right? I can't go get dny B. I
can't see him treating in the backyard. Oh can't you hate?
Good place? Got the ambulan? Yeah, just don't look like
(04:22):
other things. The guy have to want the boy to okay,
I'll listen to its meaning, can go down. We'll move
him down now some minute, work down like this, we
like put up right. Hello, may court, you want to
(04:44):
come in the shape just to go there and now
not how to do more? You looking? What you're looking
at is the aftermath of the grand jury deciding not
(05:08):
to indict Officer Wilson. A young man found hanging from
a tree in October. His mom believes someone murdered her
son targeting him. Danye became an activist in the wake
(05:29):
of the shooting death of Michael Brown by a white
police officer. That's why Melissa mckinn is wants St. Louis
County police to dig deeper to her son's death. He
was not suicidal. This is after the uprising, the death
of Donye Dion Jones, And in my head, I was
(05:58):
just trying to figure out, why would he do this?
It made no sense. Why would he do this? As
if he would answer or somebody would answer, you know,
But for the life of me, I just couldnot figure
out how my son, who I had just seen before
(06:20):
I went to sleep, that was in good spirits, that
was so excited about going somewhere, and how can he
go from that to hanging from a tree in the
backyard for me to find him like that. I was lost.
My brother and Derek especially was like it didn't even
(06:42):
look right. It was suspect. She was telling us to
cut it down. With some of that time period I
was taken, I was trying to find the flash on
the phone, the flashlight because it was in the dark.
I took like seven pictures. So that's why that's why
I hesitated someone. I'm like, we're more done to show you.
Anything else is like that that can happen after then,
(07:03):
you know what I'm saying, It didn't look right. You know,
everything that didn't look right, so you know, he said,
let's take pictures, and they can't undo pictures. You know
everything that was that was there a shorts down is
you know that the sheet and everything. As I looked
out the window, the back window to see what they
(07:24):
were doing to my side, I do remember looking looking
back there and they pull me away from the police
pulled me away from the window, and so I started
looking out the front and I see the detective which
(07:46):
was the lead detective in the case, and I remember
him because he had the black eye. He was laughing
and it irritated me. It Aaron irritated me so badly
that I asked the officers that were inside it was.
(08:06):
It was a black female officer and a black male officer. Um,
I said, is this what you guys? Do you find
this funny? You think that this is cool to be
laughing at the scene while my son is out there
laying dead. I ran to the back window again and
(08:28):
I saw some officers laughing again, but by this time
the black officer the female officer grabbed me and they
had me sit on the couch. They said that I
couldn't look back there, and I said, I didn't understand
why you remember that anything that struck you about being
(08:51):
be detected with the black eye, very nonchalant, almost as
if he wanted to harry up and get through this,
like he did not care. Yeah, it was more like
we were wasting his time, like he had somewhere to be,
almost as if my son wasn't dead. Did you get
(09:13):
the impression that you knew who you were? Yes, And
the reason why is because he was nasty. He was
nasty more towards me than anybody it And and the
crazy part is right after seeing me out in the
front on the porch screaming and punching and fighting, he
was laughing. He as soon as I went to the else,
(09:34):
he's he's laughing. It was almost as if he couldn't stop.
My neighbor saw, my family saw. It was almost like
a taunting because you can kind of like find something
funny one moment and uh it came out, but to
(09:57):
continue to do it one that it affected me. It
made us have to really look into who was this detective.
So it's just a boisterous laugh. Yeah, yes, I just
remember being I was crying in and out. I was
out of it. But I do remember seeing the lead
(10:21):
detective him the card over to whoever was sitting next
to me, which was my husban Darry. I remember him
saying that it is what it looks like, it's going
to be a suicide from us, and I'm like, I
don't understand, Like why I don't understand? And um, he said,
(10:44):
can you think of anything that why he would probably do?
And I'm like, I'm trying to think what would be
this serious for him to to end it? And not
just ended, but to do it so that I can
find him out there like that. And that's when I'm like, no,
(11:05):
not not protective, over protective, Danya. He would not do it,
especially so that I would find him. But why do
it anyway when everything that he had going on? Why
would you do it? And I remember continuing to say that,
and I said, because his his business. He was downstairs
(11:29):
just doing um the Google search that I watched him.
I saw him looking at his phone at a video
about his business. He had just started his business. He
was so excited and they said, could have failed. I said,
he was sitting down there. He was excited. He was
talking to my brother. So he said, what was the
(11:54):
last conversation? I said, I remember him asking me to
watch his clothes because as he had somewhere to go,
and he was rushing me, and he seemed so excited
about going somewhere, and I told him, don't rush me.
I'll get it. I'll watch it. And so I remember
coming to the steps and when I saw him watching
the video, I said, I'm proud of you, dude, and
(12:16):
he said he shook his head and started looking back
at the video. That was the last time I saw him,
But the last time I saw him, I was proud.
I was proud of if clothes were clean, he was
(12:39):
ready to go. He was not suicidal, and that's why
Melissa mckenneths wants St. Louis County police to dig deeper
into her son's death. On October seventeenth, and she found
(13:00):
any hanging from this tree in their backyard with bruises
on his face. McKenna says the two year old wasn't
depressed and was starting to real estate business. She believes
there's more to this story. McKennis, a prominent Ferguson activists,
told me she thinks her family is being targeted. In
the last two months. She says they've been getting death
threats through social media. The St. Louis County Cordner says
(13:21):
Danye's autopsy won't be ready for weeks and they will
not give news for any preliminary reports. St. Louis County
Police told us for now this remains a suicide investigation.
Both the family and police did say there was a
chair near his body. However, family members told me the
sheets used to hang him did not come from their
house and then not used to tie the sheets were advanced,
(13:44):
so they don't believe dan Ye would have been capable
of making Eleven days after his death, with Danye now
laid to rest, Melissa made a tough decision. She posted
to do her Facebook page the photograph her brother Daniel
had taken of Danye hanging from the tree. She captioned it,
(14:04):
they lynched my baby. The post went viral, which spurred
a few local news outlets to interview Melissa at her home,
but most concluded that they would await the Medical Examiner's
office and their final report on the matter. Knowing how
the medical examiner was likely to find, Melissa felt she
had to get out in front of it. The mother
(14:26):
of Danie Jones how the press conference yesterday, hoping police
would dig further into the death of her son. Police
originally ruled his death a suicide, but his mother's insisting
that her son did not take his own life. Instead,
she says he was murdered. A mother knows her son,
A mother knows her child. Danye Dione Jones would not
(14:48):
do that. Danye Diana Jones, full of energy, spunky, just
full of spunk, had a lot a lot to little
fore and you knew it. One by one. Danie's family
members stepped up to the microphone. First, his stepfather Derek.
One thing I know, he would never Dunythine moved close.
(15:14):
His uncle Daniel, Oh yeah, Jones, and my niece and
my other nephews. Very closest thing I have to my
own children, because I don't have any children. He had vision,
he had plans, vision to do the wholesale real estate.
They've been properties, his sister, Militia Na. We've been together
(15:39):
for his whole life, his whole like, and he loved us,
and he wouldn't go out that way. Melissa made sure
to lay out what she saw as contradictions to the
suicide hypothesis that was being put out by the police.
The data. It happened, he had enough on his face,
(16:03):
His wrists had invitations on him. Okay, his pants were
rolled down, not pooped down. They were rolled down. They
weren't scrubs. Weren't scrubs, they were pants. The knots and
the sheets that did not come from our home. We're
(16:23):
navy knots. My son was not in any military, not
a boy Scott, none of that. Finally, Melissa tried to
make it clear that they knew Danyae as only family could.
We're not a denial. We just know Danyelle. He was
with us. He was goofy with us. If you ever
(16:45):
saw him anything different than goofy's because he would not
open up to you and show his goofie side. But
my son was silly. He was silly, he was happy.
I know my son. To understand the story of Melissa
(17:11):
and Donya, we have to go back a little over
four years. On August nine, Mike Brown Jr. Was shot
and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Witnesses said
that Mike Brown's last words were hands up, don't shoot.
(17:36):
The killing sparked an uprising in Ferguson in the wider
North St. Louis County area, with the predominantly black residents
demanding justice. When later that year, a grand jury refused
to indict officer Wilson, again, people took to the streets.
What you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict officer Wilson, or a love
(18:00):
play a symbol. You need to disperse immediately or you
will be subject to arrest. Do it now. Oh, this
uprising and Ferguson was arguably where the wider Black Lives
(18:24):
Matter movement was born, and Melissa was right there from
day one. She was eating lunch with her younger son, Javan,
when they heard the news that Mike Brown had been killed,
and they rushed to Canfield Green apartments where a crowd
was gathering. And I sped over there as if it
was one of my children, and there Mike Brown was
(18:46):
laying on the ground, and I just looked at him
and my eyes started tearing up because I started thinking
about Danyee and Givonne, you know, and I was like,
I couldn't imagine. Melissa came out to the site of
the protests and Ferguson day after day after day. She
(19:07):
dedicated herself to activism, demanding police accountability for the killing
of young black men, and by when protests erupted, demanding
that officer Jason Stockley beheld accountable for his killing of
Anthony Lamar Smith. Melissa had a lot of experience under
her belt, and she was seen as one of the
many rising leaders in the movement. Here she is during
(19:29):
the Jason Stockley protests, at the head of a rally
of what looks to be hundreds, if not thousands of people.
The crowd is motionless, waiting to begin their march while
Melissa amps them up over her bullhorn. Are you ready?
(19:57):
Melissa organized the shutdowns for the Jason Stock League case.
The real bit when that we did was downtown. It
was roughly around five thousand people and it was huge.
Melissa and her fellow activists were intentionally trying to cause
(20:19):
financial strain to the city of St. Louis, figuring it
was the only leverage they had to make city leaders
respond to their demands that would hurt them more than
just as being out there and just chance. They don't
care about that. When we hit their pockets, it was
more like the city was pissed. What did you hear
about the numbers of the economic toll um seven seventeen
(20:41):
or was it seventeen or twenty one million? Today were
PISTE office. So that's why I was getting the threats.
The people of St. Louis who participated in the uprising
that began in would quickly learn that calling the police
to account was a dangerous prospect. Senate will come to order.
The center from the fourteens has requested a point a
(21:04):
personal privilege Center four teens you may pursue. Thank you,
Mr President. This morning, I woke up and I found
out another young man from my district um was murdered
in the same way, in the same fashion as two
or three other people who were active in Ferguson, people
who were protesting on the streets to be heard. The
(21:28):
people who have been murdered at this point were all
individuals who were seen in the media. That was then
Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle Nadal on the morning of
May five, speaking into the Missouri General Assembly record about
the death of Edward Crawford Jr. Crawford became famous after
(21:51):
a newspaper photographer took a picture of him throwing a
sparking tear gas canister away from a crowd of people
during the Ferguson uprising. He is a well liked father
of four, and the image of him wearing an American
flag shirt, his long braids flying behind him as he
held the fiery canister, well it became iconic. Late in
the night before the morning of Representative Chappelle Nadal's speech,
(22:14):
Crawford was shot in the backseat of a car and died. St.
Louis Metropolitan police department told NBC News that Crawford shot
himself in the backseat of a car while it was moving.
That's according to two female witnesses who were seated in
the front of the car. Details were few when Chapelle
Nadal spoke on the floor, but it would later become
clear that Crawford's sister was driving the car he was
(22:35):
in when he shot himself in the head. But Chappelle
Nadal's concerns were not unfounded. Another young man named DeAndre
Joshua had been found shot in the head in the
back seat of a car that someone had tried to
set on fire unsuccessfully. St. Louis County Police and on
Wednesday they were investigating the death of a black man
(22:55):
found shot and set on fire near an area where
rioting erupted after a grand jury did not indict a
white policeman in the fatal shooting of a black teenager,
Police said the body of twenty year old Giandre Joshua
was discovered around nine am on Tuesday in a car
parked near the Canfield Green apartment complex in the St.
Louis suburb of Ferguson. Though DeAndre Joshua's family told the
(23:18):
New York Times that he never joined in the marches
for Mike Brown. Both DeAndre and his brother were coincidentally
childhood friends with Dorian Johnson, who was the young man
walking with Mike Brown Jr. When he was killed. Then
another young man was shot and killed, his body placed
in the backseat of his car that this time was
successfully set ablais. His name was Darren Seals, and he
(23:41):
was found murdered on September six. Seals wasn't so much
a protester as a budding revolutionary. Here he is in
a video that he made of himself. He's speaking about
the up and coming Black Lives Matter movement and how
it's detracting energy away from Ferguson. Black lives a matter
of ship. It's blowing up. And if you notice as
(24:04):
is blowing up, You're not hearing about Mike Brown anymore.
Nothing about Dan Wilson anymore. Nothing handing about the you know,
the Ferguson Police Department anymore. We're not hearing about none.
It's corrupt ship about McCullen's a nixton. Not heard about
none of this ship no more. All you're hearing about
Black Lives Matter now they took the energy away from first.
(24:25):
It's still nice ship. It's still nice Shoine. A lot
of cats move to jail for us to be the
main topic in the media. A lot of cats restate life.
Spook got shot in head. She could have she could
be dead right now, you know what I mean. A
lot of ship happened for this ship to grow into
what it became. There was an opportunity to really fight back.
Then we'll make a change in Ferguson and Missouri as
(24:46):
a whole. But as you see now they are on
to the next city, then the next city, then next
city in the next city, being superstars off our ship
we created here. Well we're saying, act still like them.
And I know the police was tasting them because they
was kicking the ass. They was never not kicking the ass.
(25:07):
The only time she wasn't kicking the asses between the
rain drops. That's the only break she gave. This is
longtime St. Louis activist Anthony Shahid describing to us how
both Melissa and Darren Seals were powerful organizers and how
he believes this made them targets of police reprisal and
maybe worse, this was on the front line she stayed
(25:29):
on the front line. She was never not on the
front line. Those people, they would do anything to try
to take the stamele system, Melissa, And how can you
take the stame out in BacT And she thought of
talking about how these people heard gun shields, how the
police kept on working with them. In March of six
months before his death, Darren participated in a protest at
(25:52):
Donald Trump's St. Louis campaign rally. After he left, he
was pulled over by the police. Ultimately about eight or
nine police officers swarmed around his vehicle, in which Darren
was driving with his younger brother. A bystander filmed the
incident on his cell phone. So I'm out here and
(26:14):
I guess it's considered ferguson right off of West floor, saying,
and they got one too, three folds five police like
five six maan jump out boys with the young dude over.
That's actually one of the focusing processes that they got.
When the police finally released Darren, he comes over and
(26:38):
speaks with the man who filmed the incident. So we're
telling out some paperwork for my mother and she's in
the hospital right now. As I'm pulling off, I get
pulled over right here. They pulled out point of guns
and they point the whole They pointed guns on me
and my in my fortune, all the brothers focusing p D.
They went up to the car. They pulled them out,
grab you by my heart, slammed me off the car,
(26:59):
pull me in cough first of my car illegally without
my permission. They say you should go to the Trump rally.
I said yeah. He said, you post them about up
on Facebook. I said yeah, I said, what's that illegal? Now?
He said, no, that's nothing wrong with that, but you
might want you you might want to pick your enemies better.
Threats were apparently common amongst Ferguson activists. So Darren Seals
(27:23):
was at that Trump rather as well, Yeah, he's pulled
over leading and Trump and someone happened to film that.
And then he basically said that one of the cops
told him that he better be careful who he makes say.
And that's exactly what they said to us. You mat
be caringful. You better choose your your fights, your battles. Yeah,
you better choose your battles. Can be playing you play
(27:45):
in the daily game. Yeah, I was like whatever, Yeah,
I remember her calling me after rallies, and she was like, says, like,
they are really like threatening me. This is Melissa's sister, Toya.
She can recall many times in which Melissa told her
people were threatening her anonymously. Okay, so we have a
(28:07):
weird thing, like we laughed at things that shouldn't be
laughed at. So of course you know I'm laughing, like, wait,
you gotta aftery And she was like, no, they're like
send me messages talking about um, I was right behind you.
You you're just that easy to get or who's saying
oh oh yeah, like I would get messages like that,
And the one that really stuck out was you're not
(28:29):
hard to get. I was. We was right behind you
at the rally, at the march, you know. And sometimes
the threats came in more ominous ways. There's something that
we didn't even think somebody would take to do. The
voice you're hearing is that of Dante Carter. He too
was an activist in Ferguson waking up in the morning,
(28:51):
I don't repeatly protested. You see a wop tied up
like it's ready to hang with these news and and
it really get it. Did SOMETI that we changed to explain.
That's why we took the picture that the world that
was going on. What Dante is describing here is that
on the morning of August thirty one, outside one of
the activist tent encampments on Florescent Avenue, someone had left
(29:14):
a news for them to find. They posted a picture
of it on Twitter. If you look at it, it's
very clearly and specifically a hangman's news tied with some
rough twine. We even heard that people on Twitter like
hang them niggers. So now waking up a scene and
it is nothing but police office right up there, even
(29:34):
before I guess, even even before the sinsident happened. So
we took upon ourself episode the world was going on.
I really is. We got inducted into this situation by
flat out being at war with the police. Like there's
no way to the water that one down. So we
really don't have much of a benefit of a doubt,
like you know, like like anything we say is going
(29:56):
to be confessed by mainstream society because they think we're crazy.
To you. This is tef Po. He's a rapper and
activist from St. Louis, a one time Harvard fellow who
today runs the Boycott Times, and he also happens to
be Molliss's cousin. We asked him to describe for us
what life was like in North St. Louis County for
black people. It is a known fact in St. Louis
(30:19):
that that area is notorious for fucked up police. We
grow up telling each other like, Yo, if you live
in the county after nine o'clock, I'm not coming to
get you at the end of the night, one o'clock,
two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. How many people
we got with us, four or five of us fun
that we're not getting somebody sleeping on somebody couch. Bro,
(30:39):
I'll take you home in the morning. I ain't driving
through the county at night. And if and if I
do drive through the county, it's gonna be two people
in my car. I'm not rolling. I'm not riding five
beat four or four or five black dudes in a
car driving through North County. Bro. We're getting pulled over periods.
My brother got shot on Christmas Eves in Ferguson leaving
my mom's crib. My brother's land there leading out on
(31:00):
the parking lot, and he has to hear cops stepping
over him and you know, dropping in bombs, calling, you know,
filthy niggers. All they do is shoot each other. Uh,
you know, who gives the funk? If he dies. He's
sitting here gasping his for his final breaths, possibly, and
they're asking him who shot you? You know? Who shot you?
You know? And that's just how we get treated, man,
(31:23):
That's just how we get treated. Test is younger than
Melissa and older than Donya, but he did know Danya
and told us a bit about what he was like.
He wasn't really a negative person and he was always
kind of smiling. He was always on the goal. Uh.
He was a person that was doing things and he
had a very bright energy. He wasn't a part of
(31:44):
like anything drastically negative. Danye wasn't that type of person.
I didn't expect to never see him again. When I
did see him, I didn't see him in transit doing
things where I would have to be like, yo, I'm
as to report back to his mom finding him in
the backyard hung up. I will say, that's the strangest
way that you could commit suicide. The whole situation, it's
(32:04):
a bunch of I don't know. And that's why even
with this situation, more so than a lot of the
other situations where people are saying folks have mysteriously been
killed with Dan, hanging yourself in your backyard for a
young kid is a weird way for them to commit suicide.
Man tying yourself up with a sheet and a chair.
(32:25):
I mean, that's that's stuff people do in jail, bro
when they when they know they're about the faith life,
you know what I'm saying, life in North County and
his experience as an activist left to have feeling that
the police wouldn't reliably look into the death of his cousin,
similar to when Darren Seals was killed. They didn't really
do an investigation. They're not going to really do an
(32:45):
investigation with this situation. I'm not saying that it did
did or didn't happen. I'm saying that on Danye. I'll
say it's very candidly knowing that this will make me
a target, saying it's coming out of my mouth. The
police here, they're not going to investigate adequate to investigate
the depth does any prominent activists or anybody attached to
those activists. I do feel like, when you start to
(33:08):
turn to the pages on the local police, you may
find some things. If I feel like, if there's something
to be discovered, I would not be surprised whatsoever if
the police have their dirty paws all over this. Hellos, Hi,
(33:29):
thanks for the callback. We reached out to Melissa in December,
two months after Danye died, hoping to picture on the
idea of a long form investigated podcast that could potentially
uncover new information about the death of her son. Now,
I remember you guys sending a message, but at the
time I was getting so many emails and messages and
(33:51):
all that mess and then I didn't know who to
trust because I wasn't trusting nobody. It's good that we
can tell about it now, but at that time I
was just I was in a very very bad space
about everybody that I came in contact with. You know,
John and I both had experience working as writers, researchers,
(34:13):
and documentary filmmakers. When we saw what happened to Donye
and that Melissa was making a call out wanting people
to help her draw attention to the situation, we figured
we'd get in touch. When she called us back, I
was at a gas station. Our goal is to to
to make a podcast that will spend like a deep
amount of time exploring what happened with your son. This
(34:38):
probably needs a couple of people who have a little
bit of investigative skills, who know how to like, who
will actually spend some time. I don't know how you
feel about what I just said, but sure, I guess
we can work on it. You know, those people all
that were sitting outdoors, sitting outside at home, and it
(35:00):
in taken into consideration. Um, that man he had been
threatened before because he had the break um by dead
like he was waiting for somebody. A lot of people
keep asking why did I take his picture? Um? And
(35:25):
I didn't take his picture. My brother did a question
that people ask all the time, you know, um, why
did I put it out? And which I don't even
understand why they don't understand wolves because if I hadn't
put it out, it would have been just like all
of the other is something that oh wow, that's horrible
(35:48):
thing that happened another person, and then that that's it.
But I just know that the one detective that gave
us his business card where he loved the one with
a black guy did not give us his business card,
gave us UM a card for the airport police. That's
(36:11):
the one that gave us the most problem. I don't
want to say so much talk about a lot of
things over the phone, so okay, thank you, alright, alright back. Wow.
Melissa was interested in talking, but not on her phone.
(36:31):
We asked if she would be more comfortable if we
sent her a burner phone, and she said yes. We
shipped one off to her and waited. In the meantime,
the St. Louis County Medical Examiners report on Danya's death
was released and found, just as Melissa suspected it would,
that Dane had died by suicide. We called the St.
Louis County Police for a comment. Hey you're talking police. Hi,
(36:56):
thank you so much for getting back to me on
This is Sergeant show On McGuire, who was then a
spokesman for County p D. It's still an active investigation
for us, but we've but we've been ever since the
start of this in our detectives. What crimes against persons,
you know where they're they're the ones that were called
to the scene. UM, all signs right off the bad
(37:17):
point that this was a suicide. So I kind of
remained that as the investigation continued, as an investigation even
proceeded from there, um after they talked to family and
friends and physical evidence at the scene, and now even
the medical examiners report has been released. Obviously that's a
big part of our case as well. Um. But but
it's one of those things that it never really lost
(37:38):
focus on it being a suicide. And we were pretty
straightforward on ever since the beginning on that when when
his mother was out on social media. And that's the
thing here about to John, I mean, we we're not
really releasing too much of this is why it's a suicide,
and you know, this is what we have and this
is what we found out about don Ye and that
type of stuff, because it doesn't really help anybody. Know,
(38:00):
we understand that his family and friends are are going
through a rough time, especially you know, weeks after after
this kind of breaks and she's you know, going to
social media and trying to say that you know, people
murdered her son and that type of stuff, and you know,
we just we never get into those kind of engagements
with a victims, uh family, We're not gonna be We
(38:20):
don't win anything on that. We know what the back
to the case are. We know, you know, what the
Texas are investigating and what they saw and who they
talked to and the medical Examberage report and all that
type of stuff. So we we never are ever going
to go out there and say, well, you know, Johnnie's
mom is wrong now at this moment, are you know?
With the medical examerage report being released, that helps with
(38:41):
our investigation. So now it's more more or less of
pretty much completing the paperwork and once that paperwork is done,
you'll be able to request a copy. It's just it's
still active right now. About how long do you think
it will be until it's closed and the report becomes available.
They talked to the lieutenant in that and he said
it's more or less it could be a week down
the road, that could be a month down the road.
(39:02):
He doesn't really know. I don't really have a good
time frame for you. And not saying that Danie isn't
the form to us, but it's one of those things
of them just having time to finishing up their report, um,
you know, and administratively, and that's kind of where we're
at right now. Sergeant McGuire seemed very confident that the
Medical Examiner's office had gotten it right, and his statement
makes it seem like a lot of people who had
(39:24):
the low down on Danyae's life and mental state had
spoken with the police, and that these conversations gave detectives
confidence in their suicide hypothesis. He made it seem like
it would all be laid bare in a few short
weeks when the police issued their final report on the matter.
I did want to ask about one more thing though
(39:45):
she claims that in the time leading up to his death,
that there were like threats against her family or that
they were like menacing people who had been around her home,
was that it all looked at um. I believe that
was looked at eventually. She did not report that stuff
immediately to detectives. It's part of her in this investigation.
They didn't know anything about that. And as time went on,
(40:06):
when she she had the public Facebook post and told
Facebook and said us, um, you know, that's that's when
obviously detectives were interested in talking to her about that.
But it was definitely looked into eventually. The only way
(40:26):
that I would hear Danielle's voices if I would make
myself here, you know. Then I would not hear him
saying my or hear him laughing downstairs, you know, because
he would be down and watching TV. And now I
(40:46):
hear his crazy laugh. Sometimes I can see him and
the kids should talking to Dick. Sometimes I can hear
see him on the red chase with his feet, his
long legs and his feet, you know. That was his
favorite seat in the house, was the ran chase, and
(41:11):
he would sitting there chasing. When he talked. He had
this very very deep voice, big boy before years old
yet and I were here. Sometimes I were here him
(41:43):
and Militia and Javad with that inside jokes, and they'll
all be just giggling and laughing so hard, and I'm
just sitting there like I want to laugh, but they
didn't want to say certain things because it probably was dirty. Yeah,
but I can always say him laughing and so like,
(42:06):
it's not that I'm into now, it's not that we're
into now. My son was just at a place in
his life that he was more excited than I've ever
seen him. He had something that he really was looking
forward to. He said, just watch, I'm gonna take care
of you more tell me I didn't have to go
(42:28):
back for work, so I quick. He said, UM, that
got you, But don't believe them. We knew if we
wanted to help figure out what had happened to don Ye,
(42:48):
we would have to start digging. We needed to pour
over the details of the medical examiners and the police
department's investigations to know what they did and did not
take into account. We didn't know what we would find,
and the only thing we promised to do was to
give Melissa the benefit of the doubt, to not look
at her as though she were crazy or that she
was in denial, but to give real consideration to at
(43:10):
least the possibility that Dane didn't die by suicide from
what we could tell. That's what she never got from
the investigators, a little benefit of the doubt, someone who
would look at Dane's death and keep in mind the context,
the context of history, that of violence against black people
in our country in general, and that of Melissa personally
(43:32):
and the world she lived in. That's next time on
After the Uprising. After the Uprising is directed, produced, investigated,
written and reported by myself, Rainovschelski and John Duffy. John
Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy was producer, sound engineering,
design and mixed by Josh Condon. Executive producers were Matt
(43:54):
McDonough and Tina x Ros for Now This, Brett Kushner
for Group nine Media, and Jeff Borave was executive in
charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and Bradley Rayford were consulting producers.
Eliza Craig was assistant producer and did additional reporting. Malory
Keenoy was a writer's assistant. Kristin McVicker and Taya Wilson
were production assistants, and Haley Klesmer was a post production assistant.
Fact checking by Alison Humes, theme song and other music
(44:17):
by Zachary Walter, legal by Keith Sclar and Peter Yazy.
Special thanks to Ann Frado, Danny Gonzalez, Barbara Copple, Alex Lester,
Bethan Macaluso, Emily Maronoff, Ruth Vaka, and the Reporter's Committee
for Freedom of the Press. After the Uprising is a
production of Double asterisk I, Heart Media and Now This
in association with True Stories. You can find us on
Twitter and Facebook. If you have useful information about the
(44:38):
death of Danye Jones or anything we've covered. Please leave
a message on our tip line at three four seven
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Hosts And Creators
Ray Nowosielski
Maria Chappelle-Nadal
John Duffy
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