HENDERSON, Ky. – “Chloe saved me.”
The young woman with one arm in a sling and a black eye approached Kristie Randolph, mother of Henderson resident Chloe Randolph, with that simple statement just days after Chloe’s brutal murder on March 23, 2019.
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Kristie Randolph vividly recalls the moment with the woman, despite the fact that she and husband Jay Randolph, Chloe’s dad, were using every ounce of emotional stamina to survive their new and horrific reality.
The couple’s only daughter, Chloe, 20, had been found stuffed in the closet of her soon-to-be ex-husband’s apartment. Chloe’s throat had been slit and her head bludgeoned, Henderson police said. Chloe’s nine-month old son was missing and believed to be with his father.
Through a series of events, local authorities caught up with the man — 21-year-old Mohamud Abdikadir — in Arkansas. Abdikadir had the baby, named Slimani or Slim. The baby was unharmed, police said.
Abdikadir was brought back to Henderson, charged with murder and is awaiting trial in December.
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The beginning
The exchange between Kristie Randolph and the abused woman occurred at the Henderson Judicial Center while the Randolphs were waiting for a court appearance regarding their grandson’s custody situation.
“This girl kept looking at me,” Kristie Randolph told The Gleaner. “Finally, she said, ‘I know who you are.’ She said, ‘I want you to know that Chloe saved me.’ She said, ‘Chloe doesn’t know me, and I don’t know her. But that night when it came out that she’d been killed, that’s the night I left.’ She said, ‘I just wanted you to know that. That Chloe saved me.’”
The Randolphs said that wasn’t the last time they had these types of interactions.
“It was always like that,” Kristie Randolph said. “We’d be anywhere and people would come up and say things like that.”
“It’s still like that,” Jay Randolph said.
“I would say the first month after her death, there was at least one person a day, sometimes more, who would say to us, ‘I’ve watched Chloe’s story. That’s the same situation I’m in.’ And it was men too,” Kristie Randolph said.
“And it wasn’t just here,” Jay Randolph said. “Kristie heard from people who live in Germany and Australia.”
From these moments and their own experiences navigating the aftermath of the tragedy, the Chloe Randolph Organization was born. The advocacy center’s doors opened Oct. 1 at 324 First St.
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After Chloe died, Kristie said, “It came out that there is nothing here in Henderson (for those dealing with domestic abuse). People have the misconception that the Father Bradley shelter is for domestic violence victims, and it isn’t.”
“Victims of domestic abuse can’t stay there overnight because the address is publicized,” Jay Randolph said.
“It seems Henderson’s answer to domestic violence is to send (victims) to Evansville,” Kristie Randolph said.
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Making plans
It’s hard to say what you would do if someone hurt your child.
Jay Randolph said within two hours after last speaking with his daughter he knew that something had happened to her.
He said it was the morning of March 23, and she’d called him on her way to pick up Slim from his father’s apartment on Green River Road.
“I talked to her 11 minutes and 12 seconds,” Jay Randolph said. “It was 9:35 a.m. when we got off the phone. The last thing I said to her was ‘I love you. Be careful and let me know when you’ve got Slim.’”
Randolph said he and Chloe didn’t go two hours without speaking to, texting or tagging each other in things on social media. So, long before he found himself standing outside of Abdikadir’s apartment with the Henderson police that Saturday night, he knew she was dead.
He said his mind went into overdrive, and he and Kristie started making plans.
“We had created goals. Things that had to happen, even before the police confirmed that Chloe was in that apartment,” he said.
“I told Kristie before they went into that apartment – we have three things we have to do. One, we have to get Slim. That’s priority No. 1. Two, we have to get Chloe’s remains. Three, we have to get counseling for the boys (Chloe’s brothers).
“So after everything started falling the way the cards fell, we knew we couldn’t allow things to continue to happen to other people like this,” he said. “We had to do something. Because if you listen to all the survivors, their stories/statements are repetitive.
“There’s nothing here in Henderson (for domestic abuse survivors). They didn’t have the support they thought they needed. There weren’t enough resources. That’s what every victim we’ve talked to would say. So, that is why we said, ‘Ok, we’ve got to do something. We can’t walk away and let her death mean nothing.’”
“I tell people that in a five-day period this is what our family dealt with. March 23, Chloe was dead. That same day, we found out we couldn’t get Slim because his father refused to release him to us. (Slim was temporarily in the custody of the state of Arkansas where he and Abdikadir had been detained by the police).
“I called Patrick Shea, a friend of mine who is an attorney. He met us on March 25. We spent all day going from the courthouse to different attorneys’ offices and then going to the funeral home. We learned at 5 p.m. on March 25 that we could go pick Slim up the next day. We left that afternoon, drove to Arkansas, spent the night, picked him up the next day, drove back to Henderson County on March 26.
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“Then, March 27, we learned about the Kentucky law which states the next of kin, which was Chloe’s husband, gets to decide what happens to her remains. I immediately got on the phone with Rob Wiederstein. I told him, ‘this is screwed up, and we need to deal with it.’ I know how much trouble I’m having dealing with this, and I don’t know how many other people could hold their ground like we are. It was very important then to get Senate Bill 66 pushed through. The Governor signed it into law in April,” he said.
Senate Bill 66 says that a person who has been criminally charged in the death of another cannot make decisions regarding the disposition of the decedent’s remains.
“Even though it has Chloe’s name, it doesn’t change anything for us except to know that others won’t have to deal with this. That was our main goal,” Jay Randolph said.
Kristie and Jay Randolph said their experience during that five days was another impetus for the Advocacy Center.
“There are so many things or resources people don’t have,” Jay Randolph said. “They don’t have the information on how to get an EPO (emergency protective order) or how to fill out an EPO. And police officers and judges can’t tell you what to put in an EPO. Not everybody has the friends we have or resources we had.
“Some may not know that if you’re granted an EPO, you can go to your landlord and request that they change the locks on your apartment/house, and they have to do it. That’s a big deal. And many don’t know this,” he said.
“I’m extremely grateful for all these people in my life. If it hadn’t been for them, we would’ve been lost. (Kristie) has a niece who is a social worker in Indiana. I have a niece who is a social worker in Tennessee. They walked us through things with Slim. The average person doesn’t have that. This is a big part of why we opened the advocacy center, and why we are here.”
Out of the dark
Domestic abuse occurs in the shadows.
The Randolphs understand this and said they will actively be working with organizations to guide victims to the help available at the Chloe Randolph Organization Advocacy Center.
“We have contacts with Audubon Resource Center, the Hope House in Owensboro, the United Way, the Henderson County Attorney’s office, the police department, the sheriff’s office. One of the things we are doing now, we are in close talks with County Attorney Steve Gold (and law enforcement agencies) about implementing the ODARA training or the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment.
“It is very accurate in predicting (domestic abuse) recidivism rates … It’s basically a lethality assessment that on-scene officers use when working a domestic incident,” Jay Randolph said.
The Randolphs said there are things they want to tackle at the state level such as asking the Kentucky General Assembly to start keeping specific statistics about domestic violence incidents, instead of allowing all assaults to be lumped in together.
At the local level, Jay Randolph said, “the community needs more education. I look at the jail website, and you wouldn’t believe the number of people in there just for domestic violence. Until what happened with Chloe, I wasn’t seeing it. I wasn’t looking at it. I wasn’t seeing what was out there. You talk to people and you realize everyone has been affected by domestic violence either directly or indirectly.”
The Chloe Randolph Organization is in operation Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Eventually, he said, “I’d like to expand those hours and have volunteers (manning the desk).”
“The goals of the Chloe Randolph Organization are we wanted an advocacy center, which we have, and we want to work on safe housing for victims. We want safe housing here. We’ve toured other facilities, they are excellent. That’s something we need here, and it’s something when we get it, we can work with the court system.
“I’ve learned so much about domestic violence. We’ve got to have something here for the safety and security of victims … we want to help people from becoming a statistic.”
Source: https://t-tees.com
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