Homicide Charges Filed Weeks after Cleveland Woman’s Disappearance. What Took So Long?
Adrianna Kiri Taylor, 23, was reported missing Nov. 13. On Thanksgiving Day, she was found dead in the backyard of a home in Wilkinsburg, Pa., according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Though a warrant has been filed in connection to her death, her case poses a question many families ask when their loved ones go missing: what took so long?
We’ve seen the same pattern in every homicide or disappearance involving a Black woman or girl. They go missing, a report is filed and the case goes cold for a few weeks, months or years while the family protests in demand for answers. Taylor’s family said they last heard from her Oct. 8, per Pittsburgh Action 4 News. She was reported to have lived with her boyfriend, Anthony Kennedy, who was arrested in connection to her death.
Read more
Surveillance footage from a neighbor’s front door camera saw a vehicle arrive in front of the home when a passenger exited the vehicle, went to the trunk and then to the back of the home. Moments later, the police surrounded the premises. After the authorities recovered Taylor’s body, Kennedy turned himself into the police.
This case eerily resembles that of a killer who terrorized the city of Cleveland years ago.
Anthony Sowell or “The Cleveland Strangler” took the lives of 11 women, also burying their bodies in the yard of his home, per Cleveland.com. The families of the victims brought the same concerns wondering why they had to wait for justice to be served. Some sued the city for the faulty investigation that could’ve prevented more lives from being taken.
More on Sowell’s case from Cleveland.com:
Several family members of the victims filed lawsuits in 2010 and 2011 alleging that Hussein failed to conduct a thorough investigation into Wade’s complaint, and if she had, police could have charged Sowell, held him in custody and prevented him from carrying out several of the murders.
The suit also claimed that other officers in the department did not follow up on missing persons reports and, in some cases refused to take them from family members of the women.
The settlement marks the latest major payout by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration to settle a lawsuit alleging misconduct by Cleveland police officers. Since 2004, the city has shelled out more than $21 million to settle such lawsuits. Another $17.7 million in pending judgments in two police misconduct cases from 1999 and 2012 is being challenged in appeals courts.
Reports say Sowell died in prison at 61 before the end of sentence and possible execution.
The tragedies both his victims and of Taylor’s death only remind us there are over 500,000 more Black women and girls whose families are still in need of answers.
More from The Root
Sign up for The Root's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.