SC mom accused of killing her 2 sons, staging accident The mother accused of suffocating her two young sons and trying to cover it up by staging an accident says she is remorseful and has been speaking with the family minister, her attorney said Wednesday.
"She's tearful, as anybody would be under these circumstances," defense attorney Carl B. Grant said after a brief hearing. "She's been very sad, very remorseful about all of this stuff, all of the allegations."
Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams has said 29-year-old Shaquan Duley expressed little remorse when she confessed Monday to killing her two young sons, ages 2 years and 18 months.
Shaquan Duley
Duley, who is unemployed, told authorities she smothered the boys after a fight with her own mother, who badgered her about her failures as a parent and inability to provide for her family financially. She first told investigators the boys drowned after her car plunged into a river early Monday morning.
"She truly felt, 'If I don't have these toddlers, I can be free,'" Williams said.
About 80 relatives, friends and curious onlookers attended Wednesday's hearing, Duley's first court appearance since she was charged with two counts of murder. Her family has largely kept silent about her arrest, but before the hearing, her sister said she think Williams' portrayal of events has been fair.
"I don't feel that he's dragging my sister through the mud," she said outside the home she shared with her mother, sister, niece and nephews. "I actually feel that he's speaking fairly compassionately on her part."
Adriane Duley said her family has been too overwhelmed by the media attention to do day-to-day tasks such as taking out the trash or getting the mail let alone grieving and planning two funerals.
"I've had enough," she said. "My family needs their privacy."
Shaquan Duley's mother, Helen Duley, told a Columbia television station that her daughter is a loving person who became overwhelmed.
Poster Comment:
Remember Susan Smith?
The horror of what she did, releasing the brake and allowing her car and her kids to roll off a boat ramp still leaves me with ice crystals on my heart and a deep, aching sadness whenever I recall it or see her children's pictures.
Unlike Shaquan Duley's babies Smith's children were still alive when she sent them into deep, dark cold water still strapped in their car seats.
As awful as this may seem, I'm actually relieved that Ms. Duley suffocated hers before sending her car off a bridge into a river.
She'll get life, too, and may even enjoy the company if not the sympathetic mentoring of the older and seasoned inmate, Smith.
South Carolina is a tough place to be a poor baby, especially if Mom has issues.
Perhaps Smith and Duley can start a movement and bring the spotlight to bear on the issues that compel young mothers to kill their children. Is it a cry for help that we don't hear? Do these crimes argue for more sex education or less? Do men with no use for ready made families (or girls who sweat excessively in places they shouldn't oughta) abet these murders with our conscience-free libidos?
Susan Smith didn't blossom into a full figured gal until after she was jailed. It would appear from Duley's mugshots that had she succeeded in slipping the noose she would have had a long stretch of dieting ahead of her, if like Smith she did it so she might get herself a man. Which makes me wonder, is losing weight (Duley) or keeping it off (Smith) just expecting too much of moms with two babies?
Could these four dead children be victims of a steady stream of images that foster low self esteem and steady diets of processed foods with high sugar content? Is it worth risking life in prison because some men believe that big girls are like mopeds?