When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, Houston and the surrounding areas welcomed the refugees with open arms

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, Houston and the surrounding areas welcomed the refugees with open arms. They got free apartments, clothes, food, furniture, money…and we were happy to help.

My family and I lived in Pasadena, Tx, and Randy Sylvester Sr moved into our complex. We’d see the kids playing at the pool, the playground, and at Crenshaw Park across the street.

Sylvester senior would chat up my husband at the mailbox, bragging about how he didn’t have to work, how he had TWO free apartments, how he’d gotten a new Suburban, etc, and did my husband know where he could buy pot? We didn’t care for Senior much, but the kids were sweet.

Then, after Father’s Day in June, they went missing.
I didn’t know until we got a knock on our apartment door; the police asking if we’d seen the kids. My husband and I talked to them, and I looked around. There were people and cops everywhere…at the other apartment buildings, searching the mailbox area, the pool….

But “Dad” was leaning up against his Suburban, hands in his pockets, just looking down. Just standing there.
I thought it was weird, but then…panic, agony, and fear affect everyone differently. I couldn’t even imagine what he was going through.

The whole city, and in Houston too, rose to help. We organized and searched, looking for those babies.
Nothing. Not a trace.

Sylvester was arrested for a probation violation, his wife had reported some inconsistencies in his stories and they began to suspect him.

Under questioning Sylvester, first said that drug dealers had killed his babies and he had disposed of the bodies, but finally asked for Quanell X, a local activist that had clashed with the city of Pasadena-both the cops AND the citizens in 2007, over an incident involving a Pasadena man, Joe Horn, and two criminals Horn had shot while burglarizing a neighbor’s home.
We the people had humiliated X at a protest, and sent him running home, his tail between his legs. (That was soooo great…but I digress.)
The police still went to him, hat in hand and asked for his help.

And, to his credit, Quanell stepped up.
Randy Sylvester Sr told Quanell that he’d killed his kids.
Randy Sylvester Sr told Quanell that he’d put them in a suitcase, and then in a chest.
Randy Sylvester Sr told Quanell X how he’d tried to burn the bodies.

Randy Sylvester Sr took Quanell X to a railroad trestle near Old Galveston Road at Allendale…and pointed out the grave which held the bodies.
They’d been partially incinerated.

Turns out the two apartments Daddy had—one was his living quarters, the other was, what he called, his “dog house”. Basically a drug den with porno films, where “Dad” went to party. That’s where the murders happened.

Daddy had killed his babies. A SEVEN YEAR OLD and a THREE YEAR OLD.
He’d stuffed their little bodies in suitcase, then in a chest.
He’d taken them to a railroad trestle and TRIED TO BURN THEM in wooded area nearby. The vegetation bore scorch marks.
Then he’d buried them.

Now, in Houston, we’ve had some really horrific crimes. We have the killing fields off 45S, we had the pixie stick dad, Ronald Clark O’Bryan who killed his son for insurance money, we had Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley & the boat shed murders, we had Angel Marturino Resindez, the railway killer…but nothing ever touched me like this one.
Was it because I knew the kids? Maybe, but I didn’t know them well. I knew them to say smile, wave and say hi to, but that was it.
I think it was because it was their DAD that did this, and the violence of their deaths.
This man….Randy Terrell Sylvester…may he burn in hell. Continue reading