Ja'Van Duley and Devean Duley

The title of this post is the children's names not the mother, may their little hearts rest in peace.

Shaquan Duley said she had been driving and had lost control of her car. Her car and her 2 children 18-month-old Ja'Van and 2-year-old Devean Duley were submerged in Edisto River in Orangeburg SC. The call came into police in the very early morning of August 16,2010. Shaquan who didn't have a cell phone walked almost a mile from the accident scene, passing houses on the way before she flagged a motorist to call police. Things didn't add up right away as Shaquan Duley wasn't even wet from the accident. When the car was pulled from the water there was no noticeable damage to the vehicle. Shaquan was arrested for leaving the scene of a accident and later questioned. Police were very suspicious of the story that Shaquan had given them.

Sadly the children were found strapped into their car seats dead. In custody Shaquan confessed to suffocating her 2 children in a hotel room before strapping them into the car and rolling the car into the Edisto river. My heart is broken that this mother didn't seek help from the moment she thought of such a horrific thing to do. There is no doubt that Shaquan didn't have a easy life, the details of her life are slowly coming out in the news, however there is nothing that can be worse than what she has done. Shaquan lives with her mother, her two sons and her 5 year old daughter in a rented house that was surrounds by boarded up houses. From what Shaquan says her mother and her had got into a argument, she told investigators her mother constantly argued with her about her failures as a mother and inability to provide for her family financially. Her mother then left the house and this is when Shaquan packed up her boys and headed out to a hotel. In the hotel room Shaquan suffocated the boys with her own hands. It is even hard for me to write, as a mother myself I can't fathom looking into my babies eyes and doing such a thing. It sickens me that the one person in this world that those children trusted was the same person that took their life. I am guessing when reality kicked in Shaquan panicked and that is when she strapped their lifeless bodies into their car seats and headed to the river. The boat ramp to the Edisto river was approximately 10 miles away from the hotel.

Shaquan Duley told investigators that she was overwhelmed with being a mother and felt that if she didn't have the young boys she could be free. I am pretty sure this case will lean towards Postpartum depression or insanity, but coming from a mom who did have postpartum, I do not believe that this was the case. As far as insanity goes, well yes I do think anyone that could do something like this is insane. However Shaquan had enough sanity to know what she did and to know that she needed to cover it up. Sadly by the sounds of this story, Shaquan Duley murdered her children to get back at her mother. I am sure the whole family is in pain today, I wish them all strength and happy memories of the little boys that were taken far to soon.