A Cincinnati foster mother known for her legacy of advocacy work was killed this week, along with two of her adopted children, before their suspected killer died of “apparent self-inflicted stab wounds” at a local hospital.
Anthony Mathis, 66, was identified as a suspect in the Thursday, Oct. 24 killings of 78-year-old Patricia McCollum, DJ McCollum, 32, and Kaydence McCollum (whose name has also been spelled as “Cadence”), 11, according to the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD).
Mathis “succumbed to his injuries” later in the day after being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, police said.
According to CPD, police officers and Cincinnati Fire Department personnel responded to a stabbing report at Springbrook Drive around 8 a.m. local time on Oct. 24, before discovering the three victims with stab wounds and determining that they had died. The CPD’s Homicide Unit is investigating.
“Never dreamed of anything like this happening at all,” neighbor Diana Turnbow told NBC affiliate WLWT. “We just heard individuals yelling stop, come back, don’t run, things of that sort and that’s all we heard.”
Rosemary Oglesby-Henry, the founder of Rosemary’s Babies Company — for which Patricia was a founding board member, according to WLTW — confirmed to the outlet that DJ and Kaydence were Patricia’s adopted children.
Patricia McCollum.
Patricia McCollum/Facebook
According to the Cincinnati Enquirerpolice found Mathis when they arrived at the home, where he retreated, before SWAT officers attempted to negotiate with him for hours.
His relationship to the victims was not made clear in a news release from the CPD. Per multiple outlets, including Fox affiliate WXIX, The Enquirer and WLWT, Mathis had a criminal history and was previously charged with strangulation and domestic violence in April 2023, with Patricia identified as the victim.
In a criminal complaint cited by WXIX, he was accused at the time of having “choked her, causing pain to her neck and lifting her off the ground at the same time.” A judge initially signed a domestic violence protection order against Mathis, his strangulation charge was “ignored” by a Hamilton County grand jury, according to the outlets.
The domestic violence charge was eventually “dismissed for want of prosecution,” according to a court entry cited WXIX.
Patricia is now being remembered by those who knew her as a “hero” and for leaving a “legacy of love,” according to a GoFundMe campaign shared by Deronn McCollum, which has raised over $6,000 as of Saturday, Oct 26 for the woman known to her community as Ms. Pat.
Patricia McCollum and DJ McCollum.
GoFundMe
That legacy includes launching local community programs, fostering hundreds of children and licensing thousands of foster parents. According to the GoFundMe, she was known as “Pat for the People.”
ShaRonda Moore, a friend of Patricia, told ABC affiliate WCPO that she and DJ shared “a very unbreakable bond” and that the mother was “very protective” of him. Moore was DJ’s agency provider and helped take care of him for 12 years, per the outlet.
“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.
According to the GoFundMe, Patricia adopted DJ as a child and he was “not supposed to live past the age of 7” due to medical issues stemming from a “childhood tragedy that left him with no limbs and more than 90% of his body deformed.”
“He lived beyond his years, 32, because of Ms. Pat’s love,” the fundraiser noted. “He learned to walk and talk providing a goal for him to walk across the stage to receive his diploma. She was his lifeline. She never wanted to separate from her son. She does not have to they are in Heaven together just as she’d written.”
Kaydence, per the fundraiser, “brought life and joy to a woman who thought she’d adopted her last child until she met this bright little one.”
“She mimicked her Mom — her smile, her laugh, and her heart,” the GoFundMe description read. “(She) was 11 years old. Too soon to leave this life but having had family and an overflow of love here.”
According to the GoFundMe, Patricia is survived by her adopted children, foster children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and her two biological kids.
“Her legacy will never die,” foster parent Brent Williams told WCPO. “You know? Her legacy will never die.”
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