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‘I Want To See Them In Jail For The Rest Of Their Life,’ Estranged Husband, Father Says Of Family Massacre Suspects
Relatives describe Shana Decree, 45, and her family as being increasingly isolated and speaking of demons and "pearly gates" in the weeks before she and her 19-year-old daughter allegedly killed five other family members.
The estranged husband and father of Pennsylvania women accused of killing five family members is speaking out, saying he hopes the pair will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
“I don’t want them in no insane asylum,” Damon Decree Sr. told WTVD. “I want to see them in jail for the rest of their life.”
Damon Decree Sr.’s 13-year-old son, Damon Decree Jr., was one of five people found dead in a Pennsylvania apartment building Monday afternoon. His estranged wife, Shana Decree, 45, and daughter Dominique Decree, 19, were found alive and disoriented in the apartment and later told investigators they killed the family members because they had all “wanted to die,” a probable cause affidavit said.
The mother and daughter have been charged with five counts of criminal homicide and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide after being accused of killing Shana’s children Naa ‘Irah Smith 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13, along with Shana’s sister Jamilla Campbell, 42, and Campbell's 9-year-old twin daughters, Imani and Erika Allen.
Decree Sr. said he was surprised his estranged wife and his daughter killed their relatives, but had known something strange was going on in the apartment.
“This has been going on for the past month,” he said. “I mean we been calling children’s services, calling the police.”
The bodies were discovered after a Bucks County Children and Youth representative arrived at the home Monday for an unannounced visit and became concerned when none of the eight people living at the apartment at the time answered the door.
"We've been calling and checking and doing everything we needed to do," Decree Sr. said. "Every time they went from my perspective at least, they said the kids were safe and it's nothing we could do."
His niece reportedly told him the family had descended "into some type of cult” they discovered online.
“I don’t know how, what kind of cult. And they were talking about demons being all around them,” he told the news station.
Walidah Campbell also told The Philadelphia Inquirer her sisters, Shana Decree and Jamilla Campbell had begun talking about demons and “pearly gates” in the few troubling conversations family members had with the family recently.
“I really wish I could ask my sister what happened,” she said. “Naa’Irah’s fiance was concerned. The children’s fathers were concerned. It all happened so fast.”
Walidah Campbell also told the paper she was confused why all eight family members were living together—when Smith and Jamilla Campbell had their own homes—and said they’d begun to isolate themselves inside.
She described her sister Shana as a good-hearted woman.
“This is not normal for them. They were all very sweet, intelligent people,” she told the paper. “I think it was something they got into, something that took over them.”
Destiny Harris, the half-sister of the twins killed, also echoed other family member’s assertion that the family had gotten into some type of religious group, but said her half sisters did not deserve to die.
"They were 9. They didn't deserve that, they didn't need to go through that," she told WPVI. "They should've never been dragged into the family issues or religion. They're too young, they're too young to understand. They had no choice."
Morrisville Police Chief George McClay said the investigation into the case is ongoing and that police “had no indication” that religious beliefs played a role in the family’s murders, the paper reports.
Both Shana and Dominque Decree were found with “very superficial” cuts to their necks, he said.
