CINCINNATI — Friends and family continue to mourn after three people were found stabbed to death in a College Hill home Thursday.
Police identified the victims as 11-year-old Kaydence McCollum, 32-year-old DJ McCollum and 78-year-old Patricia McCollum. The suspected killer, 66-year-old Anthony Mathis, later died from self-inflicted stab wounds at UC Medical Center.
ShaRonda Moore, a friend of Patricia McCollum, said she’s been in disbelief.
“My heart goes out to them,” Moore said.
Moore spent 12 years as DJ’s agency provider. She helped take care of him alongside Patricia, also known as Ms. Pat.
"Pat and DJ had a very unbreakable bond,” Moore said. “Pat was very protective over DJ."
Moore said that love spread to Kaydence, too.
"She was just a great advocate, loving mother, very supportive of all of her children and she would go above and beyond for each and every one of them,” Moore said.
Moore says motherhood was Ms. Pat’s calling.
Foster parent Brent Williams said Ms. Pat was able to use that calling to help others care for children.
Williams said she was always the person he and his wife would turn to when they had questions regarding their four foster children that they eventually adopted.
"When we needed to contact her, we would call her up say, 'Ms. Pat, how do you do this?' She was a mother, but she was also a teacher," he said.
Williams said Ms. Pat's death has inspired him and others in the foster community to do more to help children, and that would serve as her lasting legacy.
"Her legacy will never die. You know? Her legacy will never die," he said.
Reverend Damon Lynch Jr., a pastor at New Jerusalem Baptist Church, said motherhood suited Ms. Pat.
“It was just like, I don't know if you've been to the farm, you ever been to the farm and see what the chickens do? That's what she did. Her wings were always there — for cover, for love, for ones that were crying, for ones that were doing whatever they were doing,” Lynch said.
Lynch met Ms. Pat six decades ago through a program helping impoverished people find jobs in Cincinnati. He said the program helped teach valuable life lessons.
Lynch baptized DJ and Kaydence and believes Ms. Pat’s love spread to everyone she met.
"It's what you got in here, and that's what she had,” said Lynch.
A fundraiser has been organized to help the McCollum family pay for funeral expenses.
