Kennedale murder-suicide highlights violent, severe stretch for domestic violence
KENNEDALE — Bernice Pritchard had a lot more life to live, her children believe. She was vibrant, hardworking, generous, and a loving mother of four and grandmother of five.
She and her fiancé were living at a senior living apartment complex when her life was tragically ended in a murder-suicide.
"Every time I think about it, I get sick to my stomach," said Tonisha Pritchard, her oldest child at 36. "I haven't slept in days. Barely ate. Barely bathed. I homeschool my kids. I can't even teach them."
Tonisha has two sisters, Trisha Pritchard and Leila (Pritchard) Brooks, and one brother, Xavier Carter.
The four siblings came to Kennedale last week to pack their mother's belongings. Bernice Pritchard had moved to a senior living apartment complex on S. New Hope Road with her fiancé, Rickey Lynn Perry, after accepting his proposal last Christmas.
The two never reached the altar or celebrated one year of engagement.
"We thought maybe it was a health issue because the prior week or week and a half or so, she had low blood pressure and had to go to the hospital," Carter said.
As usual, most, if not all, of her children had spoken with their mother via text or phone on Thanksgiving. She was a healthcare worker who had a 12-hour shift on Thanksgiving Day.
Neighbors told Pritchard's children that their mother and Perry argued that night. He was outside the apartment and smelled of alcohol, according to the accounts the children received.
"There were no signs. There were no signs," Brooks said. "At least around us."
Brooks, Pritchard's youngest daughter, said she'd invited her mother and Perry to visit her on the East Coast, where he even met her in-laws. She said he was a conversationalist who seemed like a safe choice.
"I love you guys. I want to kind of take you all in as you know my stepkids," Trisha Pritchard said. "We really honestly didn't see any warning signs in person."
According to her older daughter Tonisha, Pritchard had been confiding that Perry was not who he pretended to be. The conversations, her daughter said, were about him mixing alcohol and prescription drugs.
"She confided in me a few times. Like, I think she knew something was going to happen," Tonisha Pritchard said. "She would talk about how she wanted her funeral to be."
The daughter claimed Perry had a cane with a shank/knife on the end. Her mother allegedly would hide it, to Perry's dismay. But no one is sure what lit the fuse between Thanksgiving and the following Saturday.
"But I still don't have a timeline," Trisha Pritchard said. "We still don't really know any details to even give ourselves like an idea of what exactly happened."
Her children could not reach her or Perry by phone, they said. By way of cell phone technology, Brooks said her mother's phone kept showing the location of the S. New Hope Road apartment. Plus, they said their mother did not go to work, which was out of character.
By Saturday, Kennedale made a welfare check at the children's request. A search warrant for murder obtained by CBS News Texas reveals officers called the fire department. Emergency workers found two bodies in the bedroom on the bed.
"They said that they found the door barricaded in a suitcase with---full of her clothes by the door," Carter said.
Their mother, he said, had a plan to escape with a friend. As far as her other daughter knows, Perry was verbally abusing her mother. The grieving daughter said her mother discovered things Perry had said in the past were unraveling.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said 61-year-old Pritchard died from multiple shotgun wounds. Sixty-three-year-old Perry, death investigators said, died from a shotgun wound to the head.
"The tricky part about it is," Jan Langbein said. "We can't see it coming. These guys don't come on as monsters. They come on as gentlemen."
Langbein is the CEO of Genesis Women's Shelter and Support. She said offenders will tell victims everything they want to hear about caring for family and creating an environment of happiness. Then, the situation shifts into a life-threatening relationship.
Unfortunately, Langbein said some outcomes have not changed. Survivors are forced to live through the worst circumstances.
"We've just been overrun with requests for services. There aren't enough safe beds in the state of Texas, in the city of Dallas," she said. "And so, we're constantly getting calls that we have to turn away. We are trying to do the best we can with referring to other agencies for perhaps working out---is there a hotel motel that they can use?"
During the holidays, Langbein said domestic violence increases and becomes more severe.
"We know that the holidays can be a very tense time for everybody. Not enough money, spirits are high, and kids are home, and there's just a lot going on," she said. "And that's in a normal household, right—a healthy household. But when there is violence in that home, we absolutely see an increase in the severity of the violence as well."
Pritchard's first daughter said she is a survivor of domestic violence.
"I don't know how to process this. It's like I'm in a dream. She didn't deserve that," Tonisha said. "And like, anyone who's being abused, you have to leave. Even if it means leaving everything, material things don't mean anything. Your life is more important than just leaving."
Langbein said that those who are going through domestic violence should know it's not their fault and they don't have to navigate their situation alone. She said professionals are waiting to help you leave as safely as possible.
"Women who are leaving or in the process of leaving, or he suspects that she might leave, are in seven times greater danger of being killed at that moment," Langbein said. "That's why shelters have to operate in a secret location."
Pritchard's vigil and funeral were held in the Houston area last week. Her family said she came to America from Liberia at 17. She lived in Houston for 25 years.
The kids remember their mother moving to White Settlement when they were younger to be with Perry. They don't know why she left. The kids believe the two rekindled through a dating app.
Multiple attempts to confirm the investigation with Kennedale Police have yet to produce a returned email or phone call.
But Pritchard's children insisted on using their tragedy to save lives, even extending forgiveness to Perry.
"I can't allow that anger and rage to grow in me," Tonisha said. "And it's wasted energy to hate someone who's not here, who's dead."
For those who need resources to escape domestic violence, call The Genesis Women's Shelter and Support at (214) 946-4357 or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE.
