November 11, 2024 • 37 mins
Princella Yolanda Eppes, lovingly known as“Lady Bird,” was a vibrant, creative, and deeply spiritual young woman whose life was tragically cut short in 1990. Raised in a close-knit family, her sisters Kim and Ebonyrecall her as a protector, artist, and jokester with a passion for baking, poetry, and faith. In July 1990, Princella was found murdered in her Atlanta apartment. Her family, led by her sister Kim, has never stopped fighting for justice.
Witnesses last saw Princella with a man the night of her murder, but the investigation stagnated for decades leaving the family without closure or justice for Princella. The family‘s determination, along with community support, keeps the fight for answers alive as they work to ensure Princella is never forgotten.
If you have any information about Princella’s murder, please contact Crimestoppers of Greater Atlanta 404.577.8477. *$10,000 Reward available for tip that leads to an arrest and conviction*
Witnesses last saw Princella with a man the night of her murder, but the investigation stagnated for decades leaving the family without closure or justice for Princella. The family‘s determination, along with community support, keeps the fight for answers alive as they work to ensure Princella is never forgotten.
If you have any information about Princella’s murder, please contact Crimestoppers of Greater Atlanta 404.577.8477. *$10,000 Reward available for tip that leads to an arrest and conviction*
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Princella Yolanda Epps was a vibrant young woman whose life
was tragically cut short in nineteen ninety. Known to her
loved ones as Lady Bird, Princella was a creative spirit,
fiercely loyal, and deeply committed to her faith. Despite the
Atlanta Police Department's initial lack of urgency in solving her murder,
(00:54):
Princella's family has never given up their pursuit of justice.
I'm Melissa and I'm Whitney.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Join us on Navigating advocacy as we share the life
of Princella, discuss the lack of investigation by the police
for decades, and speak with her sister Kim to explore
a path to navigate for justice for Princella.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Princella was born on March thirty first, nineteen sixty eight,
in Ohio to her parents, Curtis Senior and Mary Anne Epps.
She was the second of four children, with two sisters,
Kim and Ebony Joy, and a brother, Curtis Junior. Kim,
(01:42):
who was just two years older, shared a close bond
with Princella. Their siblings were tight knit, with each having
a special bond with the others. Princella grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts,
where she became affectionately known as Ladybird or simply bird
(02:03):
by almost everyone who knew her. Her mother decided to
call her this because her facial features reminded her of
a little bird.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
When I asked him about this, her eyes sparkled as
she talked about the nickname that stuck with Princella her
whole life. She said that she didn't remember ever not
calling prince Ella ladybird or just bird. She said that
during her time researching Princella's case, she learned that ladybugs
were also known as ladybirds, and now she collects ladybugs
(02:35):
to honor Princella.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I didn't know that, I am. I never knew that
that's like what they call ladybugs, and now I'm kind
of interested in it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I'm gonna have to google it because I didn't know
that either. But now she collects ladybird fabric, anything with
ladybugs on it. It's like a little wink or a
nod to Princella, and I think it's just adorable. Yeah.
Same r and Sella had a vibrant personality and was
full of energy and life. She was a jokester and
(03:06):
kept her parents on their toes to the point where
she got in trouble a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In school.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
She once signed her own report card instead of giving
it to a parent to do so, and when she
asked her mom about it, she just like quickly changed
the subject and said, oh, I prayed on it and
was told to do this.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Thanks my mom, thank, oh my gosh, I love it.
Evanie calls Princella a defender and a protector. If she
felt you were going to be in trouble, she was
going to be in trouble too, so you didn't have
to do it alone.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
She was the one to take action. One story in
particular that Kim shared was when she had returned home
during summer break. So Kim was in college in Georgia
and during the summer you have to pack up your items,
take them home or store them. You couldn't leave them
in the dorm rooms, which I think that's pretty common
amongst most universities.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, I think so as well, especially the dorms. I
mean maybe if you had an apartment and left for
a month, you would just keep your apartment and keep
paying the rent and keep your stuff there. But as
far as dorms, so they'll usually have either programming or
do summer classes where other people might need to move
into them or repair us.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Honestly, yeah, I also think they do like the painting,
the like exterminating all those maintenancy. Like you said, items
that turnover, I guess you would call it, And I
think they also move people around. I did see that
when I was in college. Kim had brought home a
big suitcase with her on the flight, and after being
picked up from the airport, she had left the luggage
(04:42):
inside the car. She couldn't really remember why it was
left in the car. It just wasn't a priority at
the time.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Just hey, get'm.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Home, let's get in the house, let's verge out. Who
cares about the luggage. The family was inside the house
and they heard the car alarm start to go off,
and prince Ella immediate jumped to her feet and chased
after a young man who had broken into the car
and stolen Kim's luggage. Kim explained it like it was
an action movie, like Princella jumped out of the house,
(05:11):
was jumping over fences, yelling at him, chasing him down
to get that suitcase back. We absolutely loved this, and
I can picture this wholeheartedly. This young woman just going
after this dude. It is so funny to think about.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And the fact she got it back, well, the guy
decided it's a little too heavy to deal with, like
this is too much. Someone's chasing me.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I can't run with this big old luggage that's weighed
down with all of her belongings, like it ain't worth it.
He just wanted to get away, I would assume. So
then prince Ella turned around and came, you know, pridefully
with that luggage back up the street, like she had
solved all of the problems and just was quite the
crime fighter. She had a passion for baking, poetry, and art.
(06:00):
Kim talked about how Princella loved to write poetry, often
adding doodles in her journals. She was the first person
that Kim knew how to scrap book. It was a
creative hobby she kind of loved. Kim didn't really recognize
it as scrap booking at the time. It was just
something Princella always did and it kind of left an
impact on her younger sister, Ebony. Her sister says, that's
(06:22):
kind of why she has her own love for crafting.
It's something it was a special bond that the two
of them shared to this day because it always reminds
her of Princella. In her journals, she would go out
pick flowers and press them between the pages, and Kim
said that she had the most beautiful handwriting and had
really mastered the art of cursive. I think that's something
(06:43):
we miss a lot, is one of my children didn't
have to take cursive and then the other one did
just the way they fell in the school system. So
I think that's something that is missing, you know, cause
I remember my grandmother's handwriting. My mother's handwriting like that
beautiful cursive agreed.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
For those that don't know, might not have kids in
elementary school, middle school, the public school system really did
away with cursive writing for just a couple of years.
They're like, hey, we've got other stuff we need to
worry about, so they did not teach usually. I believe
it was like in the third grade is when they
talk curse of writing, they're like, nope. I have one
son that is in the mix watching him try to
(07:24):
sign his name in cursive, and that's all really the
cursive he knows. And that's because I just taught him
those letters they just missed out. They're just never gonna
know cursive unless they learn it on their own, which
is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's an interesting concept. Princella loved to tell stories and
always made those around her laugh. As Kim was telling
me all of these things, you could tell that Princella
was indeed.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
An artist at heart.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
She talked about how prince Ella loved to sing and
especially at church.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Princella's love for her family was matched only by her
love for christ. She was a devout Christian, singing in
the choir and studying the Bible. Her faith was her
guide and kept her grounded. She had a small family
group that would get together and seeing she loved being
with people, I think we can really just based on
(08:21):
what you described from your interview with Kim, we can
really tell she's like this extroverted person that loves being
around people. That's kind of the vibe I'm getting from her, definitely.
By the late nineteen eighties, Princella had graduated from high
school and moved to Atlanta, Georgia with her family. Her
(08:42):
older sister, Kim had already moved to the area for college,
and eventually their mother, Mary Anne followed. The rest of
the family soon joined, bringing their close knit bond to
a new city.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I asked Kim why or even how everyone had ended
up in Atlanta Field, Massachusetts, down to Lena. That's a
big change, and Kim wasn't really sure how or why.
She said, it's kind of one of those unsolved mysteries
that it just happened that way. She had been attending college,
their mom visited almost every weekend. I think in the
(09:18):
research that Haley provided, she wrote that her mom visited
almost every weekend to keep an eye on Kim, which
I thought was so cute and very It's almost like southernly.
I feel like that's something a southern mom would do,
as opposed to someone from Massachusetts. I don't know why
I got that vibe. I just did, yes, and it's
(09:39):
part of agreement.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Was I don't know if you know this, but what
was Kim's plans to return back to Massachusetts after she
graduated or did she kind of like planning on staying
in the area.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I don't believe. So I'd know that she got married
not long either in college or not long after college.
Actually I think it was during college. Still she was married,
so I assume she just planned to stay there.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
In the summer of nineteen ninety, at just twenty two
years old, prince Ella took an exciting step towards independence
by moving into her own studio apartment in the four
hundred block of North Highlands Avenue in Atlanta. She was
thrilled about this new chapter in her life, and the
(10:26):
neighborhood was one of the artsy districts in Atlanta. Her mother,
Mary Anne recalls how proud Princella was to have her
own space, although she was still learning the ropes of
being on her own, but that happiness was tragically short lived.
On July sixth, nineteen ninety, Princella was supposed to pick
(10:51):
up her then twelve year old sister Ebony for a
weekend stay at her new apartment, but Princella never showed up.
This seems strange, but it wasn't uncommon for the family
to go a few days without speaking or seeing each other.
They lived on the opposite side of the city, and
if any of you know about Atlanta traffic, I would
(11:12):
be like, bro, I'm going to come see you this
weekend because it is way too busy out there for me.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Right, there's no short trips across town, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
No, not at all. Kim was newly married. Everyone was
kind of going through their own lives, had their own
stuff going on, so it wasn't out of the norm
that she didn't call or come by, but it was.
It was surprising, just not uncommon.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right the following Monday, July ninth, Princella's boss became concerned
when she didn't show up for work. Princella at the time,
we worked for a drekleingar business and she was due
to open the store that day. When she didn't show up,
her boss became extremely concerned. Prince Ella was a reliable employee.
If she couldn't make a shift, she would have notified someone.
(12:04):
And to top that off, her boss was a friend
of Princella's mother, So this isn't just a typical boss
employee relationship where they don't know kind of or all
of your personality. Princella was literally helping this family friend
open this new business, so she was super involved with
this whole process, and her boss ended up calling Princella's
(12:28):
mom and telling her, hey, Princella didn't come in today.
Kim told me that when her mom received that phone call,
that mary Anne felt like something was definitely wrong. She
had had jury duty that week and by luck, had
gotten out early that day and decided to go over
to Princella's new apartment to see what was going on,
so her and her husband loaded up.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
To head over there.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It seems as though Marianne's senses were already on high alert, though,
because even before this call had come in, she had
called Kim earlier that day asking if she had heard
from Princella or had seen her, and Kim said nope, Again,
wasn't unusual, so she let it go that morning. Now
that they had heard from her boss, obviously she's a little.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Bit more than just uneasy. And I think as a mom,
you're kind of all like you already have that baseline
anxiety when your kids are out of your sight, even
grown up. Do anythings aren't adding up of where she
could possibly be, And so I can only imagine how
this mother feels at this particular moment. You're trying to
be like, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, but the
(13:34):
more things come up, it's just crippling fear.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, you're explaining it away, but also those worst possible
case scenarios are like building up in your mind and
you're trying to talk yourself down from it.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Exactly when they arrive, they look up at her apartment
window and notice flies in the window. As they approach
the apartment, they also smell the odor of decomposition. Having
a key, they had to contact law enforcement and a
maintenance worker opened the door around three pm. She had
(14:08):
been shot in her head and left on her bed.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I asked Kim how she had learned of Princella's death
or how she got the phone call. She said that
she was at home cooking dinner chicken, actually that she
never got to eat. Kim's stepdad called her up and
told her to come to the house, and Kim's heart sank.
She knew something had to have been very wrong because
(14:33):
that phone call she had got from her mom earlier
in the day asking if she had heard from Bird.
Red flags are thrown up immediately, so when she arrived
to her mom's house, they told her that they had
found Princella.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The news obviously devastated Princella's family. The loss was unimaginable,
only made worse by the frustration of dealing with an
unresponsive place. Police department. The Atlanta police departments didn't seem
to be even trying to solve Princella's murder in the beginning.
(15:08):
They trusted the process. They knew that the police department
had been assigned to investigate the case, and they trusted
that at face value. For years, the police never contacted
Princella's mom with any type of update, leaving the family
feeling beyond alone.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Mary Anne was the point of contact, and she wasn't
getting those updating phone calls of hey, we're looking into this,
or yes, we've got a few new leads. We're excited
that we've been able to uncover X, Y, and Z.
Steps were making progress. Not a phone call, not an update,
not a letter in the mail. Mary Anne was getting nothing.
Kim told me that mary Anne felt like law enforcement
(15:53):
believed that Princella wasn't important enough for them to reach
out to the family. She also said that the family
did it talk a lot about the case. It was
on their minds. They always honored prince Ella when they
were together, but they tried to continue moving forward, trusting
the justice process and just trying to live life day
(16:13):
by day, hoping, praying, trusting that something was going to
happen for their sister, but the question would arise occasionally
of where is the investigation? So Ebanie would call for
an update and essentially would get nowhere.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And I'm assuming this is after Ebne has become an adult,
because she was what only twelve when prince Ella was murdered.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So it wasn't until twenty sixteen that Ebanie started asking
questions and asking for a full update, a like where's
the case? Are you working on it? Have you thought
about working on it? Where is the box? Kind of
a thing. So it was she was an adult, and
it was several years after decades, almost two decades after
(17:04):
the whole family wasn't really given any information, not prince
Ella's autopsy, what evidence they had, or if they even
had any suspects. They weren't even fully sure of when
Princella was killed.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
This blows my mind that they're not like, they're not
even given a date. Oh, she's been deceased for forty
eight hours according to our timeline. This because this must
mean that they did not interview the families enough to
say where were you on July sixth at eleven forty
five pm or whatever it happened to be because then
(17:43):
they could have kind of narrowed that down the family.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, for sure, if the families were talking of like, hey,
I talked to her on the fifth or I talked
to her on the six er, But if no one
had talked to her for a couple of days, that's
where they were kind of confused. Decomposition had started when
they found Princella, so they could only go by what
their timelines looked like at that moment. But yes, you're right,
did law enforcement interview family, did they talk to neighbors?
(18:11):
You know, based on the case file that they're not
being given the information that law enforcement is not handing
to the police at this point. They only know what
they're talking about between themselves.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
That's crazy. That is why I swear there needs to
be a law. If there is no movement on a
case in a decade, two decades, I don't know. I
would let law enforcement even decide the timeline. The whole
case file or a lot of it needs to be
released to the public or at least the family. Give
it to the family and let them decide what they
want to do. They want to hire their own pride investigator,
(18:44):
hire their own lawyer, or put it out for the world,
for the web salutes out there to, hey, what can
you make of this as something has to be done,
because this long and they're still not even given the
autopsy is absolute garbage in my mind, I agree.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And they could even give a redacted case file, like
take the names out of it, and you know, the
identifying factors of the potential suspects if there's information you
don't want included, but give them something exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
So, the family was supposed to see her on July sixth,
but that was their only indication of a timeline, and
because Princella did it show up, they can kind of
guess that whatever happened to her happened prior to this,
but who knows how long before that exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It wouldn't be until March of twenty twenty two, when
Kim retired from her career in education, that she decided
to make her sole purpose, her sole focus, solving Princella's murder.
She really pushed in on getting the information now. When
(19:56):
she took on this role for her family, she never
imagined that she would learn that law enforcement was at
ground zero that when she finds out when she does
get information from them, she learns that they've done basically,
Jack Squatt, Wow, I have.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So many comments, but like none at the same time.
Do you know how disheartening frustrating the urge to scream
a family Kim should have felt in that moment or
did feel, when she learns that nothing has been done
to solve this brutal murder of a young woman.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I can't imagine all of the emotions, because I'm sure
that's multiple emotions that cloud in her at that point.
Like you said, anger, fear, frustration, overwhelming. Yes, like the
weight of it to be that much heavier, not only
the green of your sister being murdered, but also the
(21:03):
grief of no one's doing anything to help. Kim learned
in twenty twenty four that there was DNA on file
and that it had indeed been tested back in two
thousand and four, but it came back inconclusive.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Kim didn't let that all get her down, though, because
she started a Facebook page to share her sister's story
and keep her memory alive. She continuously pushed the Atlanta
Police Department to do more. The family was finally given
a summary of the review that they did back in
twenty sixteen. I don't understand why telling the family anything
(21:43):
took another six years after they did this so called review,
that didn't hand it over right away. They held it
for an other six years.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
They held onto all this information for thirty two years
at this point, thirty two years so them with something,
show them that you're working on it.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You have to like get the buy in of the
family by continuously working on it. If you're wanting them
to bring you information as well, it's a partnership in
trying to solve this type of crime. This was the
first time that the family was given any information about
what happened to Ladybird. The information that they provided revealed
(22:26):
that Prince Ella's apartment had not been ransacked and it
didn't appear that anything had been stolen, So that would
mean robbery wasn't the motive. The police said that they
found two condom wrappers. Now in my mind, this would
mean they have DNA unless it's like the actual condoms
(22:47):
were taken out of the outside wrapper, which then there
would be fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, if this is any instance, this is an attacker
that was went in with the motive to do this
to someone, to sexually assault them and murder them. They
might take their own precautionary measures to cover their tracks,
but I'm with you. If this is a perhaps a
consensual relationship that just turned deadly that evening, there has
(23:17):
to be something on those condom wrappers. And also if
there's not fingerprints on the foil outside wrapper of those condoms,
where's the or were the actual condoms taken from the
trash can or were the actual condoms still in the
apartment or those taken with them, were they even used?
Like does that mean that there is sperm or other
DNA outside of the rapper?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, that's my question too, because what rapper are we
talking about? Foil was what I was looking for. I'm like,
what is that material that outside wrappers made of? Foil? Yeah? Exactly.
And I mean this was a creme scene back in
the nineteen nineties, but they still collected all of that stuff.
Even if they necessarily couldn't figure out what they can now,
(24:03):
they still would have collected it, collected it, And that's
some good freaking evidence to have either the fingerprints, if
they have the freaking sperm or DNA that way, oh
my gosh, that could solve this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's excellent evidence if they still have it. The family
also learns that there were witnesses who could narrow down
the timeline. There was a mention of a police officer
who had driven prince Ela home and had helped her
hank curtains in her apartment on the night of July sixth.
(24:40):
He claimed to have left by ten thirty pm and
was said to have a solid alibi. I'd like to
know what that alibi was, but that's just me. He
also told detectives that he had not seen two condom
wrappers in Princella's apartment. However, in two thousand and three,
he was arrested for domestic violence and had a history
(25:02):
of threatening and abusing his partners. Multiple partners came forward
to a test. He even once boasted that if he
killed someone, he would get away with it because he
would be the one investigating the crime. His police certification
was revoked and he resigned his position. In twenty ten,
(25:25):
he appealed the revocation and was reinstated after cleaning he
had become religious and had quit drinking.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
He was even promoted to captain in twenty seventeen. What
the actual heck? Despite this history, the twenty sixteen review
noted that he was not considered a suspect. I hate
it when they say they have an iron alibi but
they are not. They don't say what it is, because
I really want to know what's his iron alibi, like
(25:55):
his mom or his other girlfriend, because those aren't alibis
in my mind.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Decily, or do we have video of you on the
job with three different versions of your time stamp so
that we know you haven't changed the footage something more
than justin saying he had an ironclad alibi.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Because iron clad is like legit will not take someone's
word for it. I'm sorry, I don't even care if
it's a priest.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I wish that Kim had the opportunity to read the
transcripts or maybe listening to this conversation they had with
this police officer. We also don't know if this police
officer was one of the people that Princello was dating.
We really don't know where he comes into the picture,
other than he had given her a ride home after
her shift that night. That's all we really know. I
(26:42):
feel that given police officers training, even when they're off
the job, that they might have a different view of
what is happening or their surroundings. They might be able
to recall other details that some may not, just because
that's what they're trained to do.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Agreed, may have.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Not remembered the condom wrappers, But did he see anyone
else looking at her weird? Or that she didn't have
locks that worked on her door, or like, did he
see something different environmentally? Even that could.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Fill in some gaps in the reports.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I don't know, maybe I'm reaching, maybe i'm reaching,
or but I just don't feel like that's an incorrect
assumption because law enforcement officers are trained to notice those
that minutia right exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And we're not pinpointing on this officer for being shady. Yes,
who knows the other circumstances of his life. All we're
saying is if he was there that well he was
there by his own admission he was there that night
up until ten thirty, will give us something that he
saw anything out of the ordinary. No, I think you're
(27:48):
completely correct. And that's even being nice to police officers
saying like, hey, you guys have special training. You see
things that the average person doesn't see. So what did
you see? Tell us?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
What's even more interesting about this fact is that Princella's
family didn't even know that he was a police officer
until twenty twenty two, when they shared the summary with
her previous employer.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Her family's fight for justice is a reminder that every
life is valuable and that the pursuit of justice should
never be delayed. That delay, even a week or two later,
can make such a difference, and prince Ella's was decades
later before they actually started investigating. So we ask anyone
(28:39):
with information on this case to please call Crime Stoppers
of the Greater Atlanta at four zero four five seven
seven eight four seven seven. Callers can remain anonymous and
could be eligible for a ten thousand dollars reward. Do
we know about this neighborhood of Atlanta? I know there's
(29:00):
some rough spots of Atlanta, but there's also some amazing spots.
Do we happen to know if this was.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I didn't look up specific crime statistics at the time.
This was the nineties, so honestly it would be difficult.
Well nept the statistics probably aren't well kept somewhere at
this point. I do know that Kim we talked extensively
about how it was an artsy district and that Prince
Ella would have felt at home. It's one of those
places that has arts on the walls, community gardens that
(29:30):
the entire community right there is very supportive of their
fight for Princella. In fact, Kim was telling me about
how they went back recently to that apartment complex when
they put up the billboard in the area with Seasonal Justice.
They had a billboard campaign approved and they went her
family went back to that neighborhood and they kind of
passed some flyers out and they talked to the community
(29:52):
members and they were incredibly interested in helping. So I
talked to her about our flyering cam pains and asked
her if it's something that would benefit and she thought
it would. But then when I asked her what the
family wanted, what were they hoping for? What was what
would provide good faith in them that law enforcement is
(30:17):
continuing to work on Prince Ella's case. And Kim gave
me a very simple answer. She's not asking for the world.
She's asking for them to take recognition that they are
working on it, a public recognition because when they did
the billboard campaign, they reached out to them, they gave
them multiple opportunities to participate how do you hold police
(30:39):
accountable to do the job they are supposed to be doing.
We talked about a letter writing campaign. I've been big
into letter writing campaigns lately, you know. We did one
recently for the whopmen of the Oasis of Northwest Arkansas
and hoping that it would, you know, help those women there,
bring awareness to them. And we set on a letter
(31:02):
writing campaign to the Atlanta Police Department. And we're going
to mail letters with pre stamped and pre addressed envelopes included,
so that it's essentially a please write asking about Prince Ella.
Here is a flyer of Prince Ella. Here's an envelope.
It doesn't inconvenience anyone, and it doesn't cost anyone any money,
(31:22):
just thirty seconds and a walk to the mailbox, not
a lot. And we really think that it's going to
I think it'll do something. I think it's gonna they're
going to get tired of getting letters. They're going to
finally be like, okay, enough, stop sending me letters. We
got it. We're working on it. Just reminding them that
(31:44):
the community still wants answers. It's not just the family,
the community wants it too, exactly. Yeah, And anything we
can do to help not just promote this, but make
it easy for the listeners or anyone that wants to
mail this in weird or well versed in helping that out.
So I will be mailing out to these envelopes already stabbed.
(32:06):
You really just drop it in the mail, and it
can do so much to alleviate this family's distress, but
also possibly solve a cold case. The current cold case
officer assigned to the case is taking a few steps
to create some movement. She's responsible for the ten thousand
dollars reward that is being offered and a few other
(32:29):
steps that the family's not quite ready to share yet.
So some things are in the works, but there still
needs to be a little bit of push. I will
say that if you're not in Georgia, not in the
Atlanta area, if you don't live where Prince Ella lived,
you can still help us. If you want to mail
your own letter, we will have all of that on
our website, on Princella's page, all the information, a mock letter,
(32:53):
a script if you want us to write.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
That for you.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
If you don't know what to say, we will include examples.
Will give you the address I can't give you a
stamp electronically, I don't know how to do that. That's
outside of my wheelhouse. But if you can get a
stamp and mail your own letter, that's great. If you
can't you don't have the time or the capacity to
do so, donate towards the campaign. We'll include our venmo
(33:17):
or buy a coffee one of the we will include
a way to donate towards this specific campaign. It's sixty
eight cents right now for a stamp, so less than
a dollar. If you can spare less than a dollar
to help Princella and her family, please do so. And
that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
She has never met her nieces and nephews, her brother
in laws. She's met my husband, but her other brother
in laws and sister in laws, you know, family gatherings.
She's missed out on all of that, and we've missed
her being there. We have one thing that gives us
(33:58):
joy and all of this craziness is that she also
loved to cook, and she baked, and one of her
very favorite things that she ever would make for us
was something called a cheese square. Now it's a family recipe.
(34:19):
We're not willing to share it, but do know that
it is quite delicious, and so in honor of her,
when we come together at certain holidays, we make cheese squares.
My brother makes cheese squares, or somebody will make cheese squares,
and we eat these cheese squares in honor of her,
because we know how much she loved them, and she
(34:41):
would put everything in the kitchen sink in these cheese squares,
including the cheese and the sugar, the confectionery sugar, and
the nuts and coconut and the whole nine yards, and boy,
where they are they sweet. We've tried to cut down
on some of the sweetness, but she didn't like them
that way. She loved all the sugar. She was a
(35:02):
chocolate person, and if she could have put chocolate in
these cheese squares, she would have. But that's one of
the things that when we come together we like to
talk about those types of things as well, because it
brought us so much joy eating these cheese squares and
knowing that she had made them for us. And so
that's something that is a tradition that we carry on
(35:26):
to know that our sister is a little bit closer
to us when we make those cheese squares and we
eat them as a family. So she can't be here
and she can't speak for herself, but we hope that
people will know that the reason that we do these
interviews or podcast or whatever it is, social media campaigns,
billboard campaigns is that we miss our sister and we
(35:49):
want to know what happened to her, and we want
to get justice for her, and we won't stop fighting
and searching various avenues until until we feel like justice
has been served and whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Prince Ella is more than just a name on a
cold case file. She was a sister, a daughter, a friend,
a young woman full of life and love taken far
too soon. We want to thank Kim and the rest
of Prince Ella's family for allowing us the opportunity to
(36:31):
share a little bit more about such a wonderful woman.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
This episode was researched by Hailey Gray of Hailey Gray Research.
This episode was written and produced by us. Please consider
leading us a five star review on your favorite podcast
platform or sharing us with a friend. You can follow
us on all of our social medias and continue to
share our flyers and campaigns. It truly helps us help
(36:58):
more families,
Princella Yolanda Epps was a vibrant young woman whose life
was tragically cut short in nineteen ninety. Known to her
loved ones as Lady Bird, Princella was a creative spirit,
fiercely loyal, and deeply committed to her faith. Despite the
Atlanta Police Department's initial lack of urgency in solving her murder,
(00:54):
Princella's family has never given up their pursuit of justice.
I'm Melissa and I'm Whitney.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Join us on Navigating advocacy as we share the life
of Princella, discuss the lack of investigation by the police
for decades, and speak with her sister Kim to explore
a path to navigate for justice for Princella.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Princella was born on March thirty first, nineteen sixty eight,
in Ohio to her parents, Curtis Senior and Mary Anne Epps.
She was the second of four children, with two sisters,
Kim and Ebony Joy, and a brother, Curtis Junior. Kim,
(01:42):
who was just two years older, shared a close bond
with Princella. Their siblings were tight knit, with each having
a special bond with the others. Princella grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts,
where she became affectionately known as Ladybird or simply bird
(02:03):
by almost everyone who knew her. Her mother decided to
call her this because her facial features reminded her of
a little bird.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
When I asked him about this, her eyes sparkled as
she talked about the nickname that stuck with Princella her
whole life. She said that she didn't remember ever not
calling prince Ella ladybird or just bird. She said that
during her time researching Princella's case, she learned that ladybugs
were also known as ladybirds, and now she collects ladybugs
(02:35):
to honor Princella.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I didn't know that, I am. I never knew that
that's like what they call ladybugs, and now I'm kind
of interested in it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I'm gonna have to google it because I didn't know
that either. But now she collects ladybird fabric, anything with
ladybugs on it. It's like a little wink or a
nod to Princella, and I think it's just adorable. Yeah.
Same r and Sella had a vibrant personality and was
full of energy and life. She was a jokester and
(03:06):
kept her parents on their toes to the point where
she got in trouble a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In school.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
She once signed her own report card instead of giving
it to a parent to do so, and when she
asked her mom about it, she just like quickly changed
the subject and said, oh, I prayed on it and
was told to do this.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Thanks my mom, thank, oh my gosh, I love it.
Evanie calls Princella a defender and a protector. If she
felt you were going to be in trouble, she was
going to be in trouble too, so you didn't have
to do it alone.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
She was the one to take action. One story in
particular that Kim shared was when she had returned home
during summer break. So Kim was in college in Georgia
and during the summer you have to pack up your items,
take them home or store them. You couldn't leave them
in the dorm rooms, which I think that's pretty common
amongst most universities.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, I think so as well, especially the dorms. I
mean maybe if you had an apartment and left for
a month, you would just keep your apartment and keep
paying the rent and keep your stuff there. But as
far as dorms, so they'll usually have either programming or
do summer classes where other people might need to move
into them or repair us.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Honestly, yeah, I also think they do like the painting,
the like exterminating all those maintenancy. Like you said, items
that turnover, I guess you would call it, And I
think they also move people around. I did see that
when I was in college. Kim had brought home a
big suitcase with her on the flight, and after being
picked up from the airport, she had left the luggage
(04:42):
inside the car. She couldn't really remember why it was
left in the car. It just wasn't a priority at
the time.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Just hey, get'm.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Home, let's get in the house, let's verge out. Who
cares about the luggage. The family was inside the house
and they heard the car alarm start to go off,
and prince Ella immediate jumped to her feet and chased
after a young man who had broken into the car
and stolen Kim's luggage. Kim explained it like it was
an action movie, like Princella jumped out of the house,
(05:11):
was jumping over fences, yelling at him, chasing him down
to get that suitcase back. We absolutely loved this, and
I can picture this wholeheartedly. This young woman just going
after this dude. It is so funny to think about.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And the fact she got it back, well, the guy
decided it's a little too heavy to deal with, like
this is too much. Someone's chasing me.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I can't run with this big old luggage that's weighed
down with all of her belongings, like it ain't worth it.
He just wanted to get away, I would assume. So
then prince Ella turned around and came, you know, pridefully
with that luggage back up the street, like she had
solved all of the problems and just was quite the
crime fighter. She had a passion for baking, poetry, and art.
(06:00):
Kim talked about how Princella loved to write poetry, often
adding doodles in her journals. She was the first person
that Kim knew how to scrap book. It was a
creative hobby she kind of loved. Kim didn't really recognize
it as scrap booking at the time. It was just
something Princella always did and it kind of left an
impact on her younger sister, Ebony. Her sister says, that's
(06:22):
kind of why she has her own love for crafting.
It's something it was a special bond that the two
of them shared to this day because it always reminds
her of Princella. In her journals, she would go out
pick flowers and press them between the pages, and Kim
said that she had the most beautiful handwriting and had
really mastered the art of cursive. I think that's something
(06:43):
we miss a lot, is one of my children didn't
have to take cursive and then the other one did
just the way they fell in the school system. So
I think that's something that is missing, you know, cause
I remember my grandmother's handwriting. My mother's handwriting like that
beautiful cursive agreed.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
For those that don't know, might not have kids in
elementary school, middle school, the public school system really did
away with cursive writing for just a couple of years.
They're like, hey, we've got other stuff we need to
worry about, so they did not teach usually. I believe
it was like in the third grade is when they
talk curse of writing, they're like, nope. I have one
son that is in the mix watching him try to
(07:24):
sign his name in cursive, and that's all really the
cursive he knows. And that's because I just taught him
those letters they just missed out. They're just never gonna
know cursive unless they learn it on their own, which
is wild to me.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's an interesting concept. Princella loved to tell stories and
always made those around her laugh. As Kim was telling
me all of these things, you could tell that Princella
was indeed.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
An artist at heart.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
She talked about how prince Ella loved to sing and
especially at church.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Princella's love for her family was matched only by her
love for christ. She was a devout Christian, singing in
the choir and studying the Bible. Her faith was her
guide and kept her grounded. She had a small family
group that would get together and seeing she loved being
with people, I think we can really just based on
(08:21):
what you described from your interview with Kim, we can
really tell she's like this extroverted person that loves being
around people. That's kind of the vibe I'm getting from her, definitely.
By the late nineteen eighties, Princella had graduated from high
school and moved to Atlanta, Georgia with her family. Her
(08:42):
older sister, Kim had already moved to the area for college,
and eventually their mother, Mary Anne followed. The rest of
the family soon joined, bringing their close knit bond to
a new city.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I asked Kim why or even how everyone had ended
up in Atlanta Field, Massachusetts, down to Lena. That's a
big change, and Kim wasn't really sure how or why.
She said, it's kind of one of those unsolved mysteries
that it just happened that way. She had been attending college,
their mom visited almost every weekend. I think in the
(09:18):
research that Haley provided, she wrote that her mom visited
almost every weekend to keep an eye on Kim, which
I thought was so cute and very It's almost like southernly.
I feel like that's something a southern mom would do,
as opposed to someone from Massachusetts. I don't know why
I got that vibe. I just did, yes, and it's
(09:39):
part of agreement.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Was I don't know if you know this, but what
was Kim's plans to return back to Massachusetts after she
graduated or did she kind of like planning on staying
in the area.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I don't believe. So I'd know that she got married
not long either in college or not long after college.
Actually I think it was during college. Still she was married,
so I assume she just planned to stay there.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
In the summer of nineteen ninety, at just twenty two
years old, prince Ella took an exciting step towards independence
by moving into her own studio apartment in the four
hundred block of North Highlands Avenue in Atlanta. She was
thrilled about this new chapter in her life, and the
(10:26):
neighborhood was one of the artsy districts in Atlanta. Her mother,
Mary Anne recalls how proud Princella was to have her
own space, although she was still learning the ropes of
being on her own, but that happiness was tragically short lived.
On July sixth, nineteen ninety, Princella was supposed to pick
(10:51):
up her then twelve year old sister Ebony for a
weekend stay at her new apartment, but Princella never showed up.
This seems strange, but it wasn't uncommon for the family
to go a few days without speaking or seeing each other.
They lived on the opposite side of the city, and
if any of you know about Atlanta traffic, I would
(11:12):
be like, bro, I'm going to come see you this
weekend because it is way too busy out there for me.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Right, there's no short trips across town, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
No, not at all. Kim was newly married. Everyone was
kind of going through their own lives, had their own
stuff going on, so it wasn't out of the norm
that she didn't call or come by, but it was.
It was surprising, just not uncommon.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Right the following Monday, July ninth, Princella's boss became concerned
when she didn't show up for work. Princella at the time,
we worked for a drekleingar business and she was due
to open the store that day. When she didn't show up,
her boss became extremely concerned. Prince Ella was a reliable employee.
If she couldn't make a shift, she would have notified someone.
(12:04):
And to top that off, her boss was a friend
of Princella's mother, So this isn't just a typical boss
employee relationship where they don't know kind of or all
of your personality. Princella was literally helping this family friend
open this new business, so she was super involved with
this whole process, and her boss ended up calling Princella's
(12:28):
mom and telling her, hey, Princella didn't come in today.
Kim told me that when her mom received that phone call,
that mary Anne felt like something was definitely wrong. She
had had jury duty that week and by luck, had
gotten out early that day and decided to go over
to Princella's new apartment to see what was going on,
so her and her husband loaded up.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
To head over there.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It seems as though Marianne's senses were already on high alert, though,
because even before this call had come in, she had
called Kim earlier that day asking if she had heard
from Princella or had seen her, and Kim said nope, Again,
wasn't unusual, so she let it go that morning. Now
that they had heard from her boss, obviously she's a little.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Bit more than just uneasy. And I think as a mom,
you're kind of all like you already have that baseline
anxiety when your kids are out of your sight, even
grown up. Do anythings aren't adding up of where she
could possibly be, And so I can only imagine how
this mother feels at this particular moment. You're trying to
be like, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, but the
(13:34):
more things come up, it's just crippling fear.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, you're explaining it away, but also those worst possible
case scenarios are like building up in your mind and
you're trying to talk yourself down from it.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Exactly when they arrive, they look up at her apartment
window and notice flies in the window. As they approach
the apartment, they also smell the odor of decomposition. Having
a key, they had to contact law enforcement and a
maintenance worker opened the door around three pm. She had
(14:08):
been shot in her head and left on her bed.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I asked Kim how she had learned of Princella's death
or how she got the phone call. She said that
she was at home cooking dinner chicken, actually that she
never got to eat. Kim's stepdad called her up and
told her to come to the house, and Kim's heart sank.
She knew something had to have been very wrong because
(14:33):
that phone call she had got from her mom earlier
in the day asking if she had heard from Bird.
Red flags are thrown up immediately, so when she arrived
to her mom's house, they told her that they had
found Princella.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The news obviously devastated Princella's family. The loss was unimaginable,
only made worse by the frustration of dealing with an
unresponsive place. Police department. The Atlanta police departments didn't seem
to be even trying to solve Princella's murder in the beginning.
(15:08):
They trusted the process. They knew that the police department
had been assigned to investigate the case, and they trusted
that at face value. For years, the police never contacted
Princella's mom with any type of update, leaving the family
feeling beyond alone.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Mary Anne was the point of contact, and she wasn't
getting those updating phone calls of hey, we're looking into this,
or yes, we've got a few new leads. We're excited
that we've been able to uncover X, Y, and Z.
Steps were making progress. Not a phone call, not an update,
not a letter in the mail. Mary Anne was getting nothing.
Kim told me that mary Anne felt like law enforcement
(15:53):
believed that Princella wasn't important enough for them to reach
out to the family. She also said that the family
did it talk a lot about the case. It was
on their minds. They always honored prince Ella when they
were together, but they tried to continue moving forward, trusting
the justice process and just trying to live life day
(16:13):
by day, hoping, praying, trusting that something was going to
happen for their sister, but the question would arise occasionally
of where is the investigation? So Ebanie would call for
an update and essentially would get nowhere.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And I'm assuming this is after Ebne has become an adult,
because she was what only twelve when prince Ella was murdered.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So it wasn't until twenty sixteen that Ebanie started asking
questions and asking for a full update, a like where's
the case? Are you working on it? Have you thought
about working on it? Where is the box? Kind of
a thing. So it was she was an adult, and
it was several years after decades, almost two decades after
(17:04):
the whole family wasn't really given any information, not prince
Ella's autopsy, what evidence they had, or if they even
had any suspects. They weren't even fully sure of when
Princella was killed.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
This blows my mind that they're not like, they're not
even given a date. Oh, she's been deceased for forty
eight hours according to our timeline. This because this must
mean that they did not interview the families enough to
say where were you on July sixth at eleven forty
five pm or whatever it happened to be because then
(17:43):
they could have kind of narrowed that down the family.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, for sure, if the families were talking of like, hey,
I talked to her on the fifth or I talked
to her on the six er, But if no one
had talked to her for a couple of days, that's
where they were kind of confused. Decomposition had started when
they found Princella, so they could only go by what
their timelines looked like at that moment. But yes, you're right,
did law enforcement interview family, did they talk to neighbors?
(18:11):
You know, based on the case file that they're not
being given the information that law enforcement is not handing
to the police at this point. They only know what
they're talking about between themselves.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
That's crazy. That is why I swear there needs to
be a law. If there is no movement on a
case in a decade, two decades, I don't know. I
would let law enforcement even decide the timeline. The whole
case file or a lot of it needs to be
released to the public or at least the family. Give
it to the family and let them decide what they
want to do. They want to hire their own pride investigator,
(18:44):
hire their own lawyer, or put it out for the world,
for the web salutes out there to, hey, what can
you make of this as something has to be done,
because this long and they're still not even given the
autopsy is absolute garbage in my mind, I agree.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
And they could even give a redacted case file, like
take the names out of it, and you know, the
identifying factors of the potential suspects if there's information you
don't want included, but give them something exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
So, the family was supposed to see her on July sixth,
but that was their only indication of a timeline, and
because Princella did it show up, they can kind of
guess that whatever happened to her happened prior to this,
but who knows how long before that exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It wouldn't be until March of twenty twenty two, when
Kim retired from her career in education, that she decided
to make her sole purpose, her sole focus, solving Princella's murder.
She really pushed in on getting the information now. When
(19:56):
she took on this role for her family, she never
imagined that she would learn that law enforcement was at
ground zero that when she finds out when she does
get information from them, she learns that they've done basically,
Jack Squatt, Wow, I have.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
So many comments, but like none at the same time.
Do you know how disheartening frustrating the urge to scream
a family Kim should have felt in that moment or
did feel, when she learns that nothing has been done
to solve this brutal murder of a young woman.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I can't imagine all of the emotions, because I'm sure
that's multiple emotions that cloud in her at that point.
Like you said, anger, fear, frustration, overwhelming. Yes, like the
weight of it to be that much heavier, not only
the green of your sister being murdered, but also the
(21:03):
grief of no one's doing anything to help. Kim learned
in twenty twenty four that there was DNA on file
and that it had indeed been tested back in two
thousand and four, but it came back inconclusive.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Kim didn't let that all get her down, though, because
she started a Facebook page to share her sister's story
and keep her memory alive. She continuously pushed the Atlanta
Police Department to do more. The family was finally given
a summary of the review that they did back in
twenty sixteen. I don't understand why telling the family anything
(21:43):
took another six years after they did this so called review,
that didn't hand it over right away. They held it
for an other six years.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
They held onto all this information for thirty two years
at this point, thirty two years so them with something,
show them that you're working on it.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You have to like get the buy in of the
family by continuously working on it. If you're wanting them
to bring you information as well, it's a partnership in
trying to solve this type of crime. This was the
first time that the family was given any information about
what happened to Ladybird. The information that they provided revealed
(22:26):
that Prince Ella's apartment had not been ransacked and it
didn't appear that anything had been stolen, So that would
mean robbery wasn't the motive. The police said that they
found two condom wrappers. Now in my mind, this would
mean they have DNA unless it's like the actual condoms
(22:47):
were taken out of the outside wrapper, which then there
would be fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, if this is any instance, this is an attacker
that was went in with the motive to do this
to someone, to sexually assault them and murder them. They
might take their own precautionary measures to cover their tracks,
but I'm with you. If this is a perhaps a
consensual relationship that just turned deadly that evening, there has
(23:17):
to be something on those condom wrappers. And also if
there's not fingerprints on the foil outside wrapper of those condoms,
where's the or were the actual condoms taken from the
trash can or were the actual condoms still in the
apartment or those taken with them, were they even used?
Like does that mean that there is sperm or other
DNA outside of the rapper?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, that's my question too, because what rapper are we
talking about? Foil was what I was looking for. I'm like,
what is that material that outside wrappers made of? Foil? Yeah? Exactly.
And I mean this was a creme scene back in
the nineteen nineties, but they still collected all of that stuff.
Even if they necessarily couldn't figure out what they can now,
(24:03):
they still would have collected it, collected it, And that's
some good freaking evidence to have either the fingerprints, if
they have the freaking sperm or DNA that way, oh
my gosh, that could solve this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's excellent evidence if they still have it. The family
also learns that there were witnesses who could narrow down
the timeline. There was a mention of a police officer
who had driven prince Ela home and had helped her
hank curtains in her apartment on the night of July sixth.
(24:40):
He claimed to have left by ten thirty pm and
was said to have a solid alibi. I'd like to
know what that alibi was, but that's just me. He
also told detectives that he had not seen two condom
wrappers in Princella's apartment. However, in two thousand and three,
he was arrested for domestic violence and had a history
(25:02):
of threatening and abusing his partners. Multiple partners came forward
to a test. He even once boasted that if he
killed someone, he would get away with it because he
would be the one investigating the crime. His police certification
was revoked and he resigned his position. In twenty ten,
(25:25):
he appealed the revocation and was reinstated after cleaning he
had become religious and had quit drinking.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
He was even promoted to captain in twenty seventeen. What
the actual heck? Despite this history, the twenty sixteen review
noted that he was not considered a suspect. I hate
it when they say they have an iron alibi but
they are not. They don't say what it is, because
I really want to know what's his iron alibi, like
(25:55):
his mom or his other girlfriend, because those aren't alibis
in my mind.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Decily, or do we have video of you on the
job with three different versions of your time stamp so
that we know you haven't changed the footage something more
than justin saying he had an ironclad alibi.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Because iron clad is like legit will not take someone's
word for it. I'm sorry, I don't even care if
it's a priest.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I wish that Kim had the opportunity to read the
transcripts or maybe listening to this conversation they had with
this police officer. We also don't know if this police
officer was one of the people that Princello was dating.
We really don't know where he comes into the picture,
other than he had given her a ride home after
her shift that night. That's all we really know. I
(26:42):
feel that given police officers training, even when they're off
the job, that they might have a different view of
what is happening or their surroundings. They might be able
to recall other details that some may not, just because
that's what they're trained to do.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Agreed, may have.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Not remembered the condom wrappers, But did he see anyone
else looking at her weird? Or that she didn't have
locks that worked on her door, or like, did he
see something different environmentally? Even that could.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Fill in some gaps in the reports.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I don't know, maybe I'm reaching, maybe i'm reaching,
or but I just don't feel like that's an incorrect
assumption because law enforcement officers are trained to notice those
that minutia right exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
And we're not pinpointing on this officer for being shady. Yes,
who knows the other circumstances of his life. All we're
saying is if he was there that well he was
there by his own admission he was there that night
up until ten thirty, will give us something that he
saw anything out of the ordinary. No, I think you're
(27:48):
completely correct. And that's even being nice to police officers
saying like, hey, you guys have special training. You see
things that the average person doesn't see. So what did
you see? Tell us?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
What's even more interesting about this fact is that Princella's
family didn't even know that he was a police officer
until twenty twenty two, when they shared the summary with
her previous employer.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Her family's fight for justice is a reminder that every
life is valuable and that the pursuit of justice should
never be delayed. That delay, even a week or two later,
can make such a difference, and prince Ella's was decades
later before they actually started investigating. So we ask anyone
(28:39):
with information on this case to please call Crime Stoppers
of the Greater Atlanta at four zero four five seven
seven eight four seven seven. Callers can remain anonymous and
could be eligible for a ten thousand dollars reward. Do
we know about this neighborhood of Atlanta? I know there's
(29:00):
some rough spots of Atlanta, but there's also some amazing spots.
Do we happen to know if this was.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I didn't look up specific crime statistics at the time.
This was the nineties, so honestly it would be difficult.
Well nept the statistics probably aren't well kept somewhere at
this point. I do know that Kim we talked extensively
about how it was an artsy district and that Prince
Ella would have felt at home. It's one of those
places that has arts on the walls, community gardens that
(29:30):
the entire community right there is very supportive of their
fight for Princella. In fact, Kim was telling me about
how they went back recently to that apartment complex when
they put up the billboard in the area with Seasonal Justice.
They had a billboard campaign approved and they went her
family went back to that neighborhood and they kind of
passed some flyers out and they talked to the community
(29:52):
members and they were incredibly interested in helping. So I
talked to her about our flyering cam pains and asked
her if it's something that would benefit and she thought
it would. But then when I asked her what the
family wanted, what were they hoping for? What was what
would provide good faith in them that law enforcement is
(30:17):
continuing to work on Prince Ella's case. And Kim gave
me a very simple answer. She's not asking for the world.
She's asking for them to take recognition that they are
working on it, a public recognition because when they did
the billboard campaign, they reached out to them, they gave
them multiple opportunities to participate how do you hold police
(30:39):
accountable to do the job they are supposed to be doing.
We talked about a letter writing campaign. I've been big
into letter writing campaigns lately, you know. We did one
recently for the whopmen of the Oasis of Northwest Arkansas
and hoping that it would, you know, help those women there,
bring awareness to them. And we set on a letter
(31:02):
writing campaign to the Atlanta Police Department. And we're going
to mail letters with pre stamped and pre addressed envelopes included,
so that it's essentially a please write asking about Prince Ella.
Here is a flyer of Prince Ella. Here's an envelope.
It doesn't inconvenience anyone, and it doesn't cost anyone any money,
(31:22):
just thirty seconds and a walk to the mailbox, not
a lot. And we really think that it's going to
I think it'll do something. I think it's gonna they're
going to get tired of getting letters. They're going to
finally be like, okay, enough, stop sending me letters. We
got it. We're working on it. Just reminding them that
(31:44):
the community still wants answers. It's not just the family,
the community wants it too, exactly. Yeah, And anything we
can do to help not just promote this, but make
it easy for the listeners or anyone that wants to
mail this in weird or well versed in helping that out.
So I will be mailing out to these envelopes already stabbed.
(32:06):
You really just drop it in the mail, and it
can do so much to alleviate this family's distress, but
also possibly solve a cold case. The current cold case
officer assigned to the case is taking a few steps
to create some movement. She's responsible for the ten thousand
dollars reward that is being offered and a few other
(32:29):
steps that the family's not quite ready to share yet.
So some things are in the works, but there still
needs to be a little bit of push. I will
say that if you're not in Georgia, not in the
Atlanta area, if you don't live where Prince Ella lived,
you can still help us. If you want to mail
your own letter, we will have all of that on
our website, on Princella's page, all the information, a mock letter,
(32:53):
a script if you want us to write.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
That for you.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
If you don't know what to say, we will include examples.
Will give you the address I can't give you a
stamp electronically, I don't know how to do that. That's
outside of my wheelhouse. But if you can get a
stamp and mail your own letter, that's great. If you
can't you don't have the time or the capacity to
do so, donate towards the campaign. We'll include our venmo
(33:17):
or buy a coffee one of the we will include
a way to donate towards this specific campaign. It's sixty
eight cents right now for a stamp, so less than
a dollar. If you can spare less than a dollar
to help Princella and her family, please do so. And
that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
She has never met her nieces and nephews, her brother
in laws. She's met my husband, but her other brother
in laws and sister in laws, you know, family gatherings.
She's missed out on all of that, and we've missed
her being there. We have one thing that gives us
(33:58):
joy and all of this craziness is that she also
loved to cook, and she baked, and one of her
very favorite things that she ever would make for us
was something called a cheese square. Now it's a family recipe.
(34:19):
We're not willing to share it, but do know that
it is quite delicious, and so in honor of her,
when we come together at certain holidays, we make cheese squares.
My brother makes cheese squares, or somebody will make cheese squares,
and we eat these cheese squares in honor of her,
because we know how much she loved them, and she
(34:41):
would put everything in the kitchen sink in these cheese squares,
including the cheese and the sugar, the confectionery sugar, and
the nuts and coconut and the whole nine yards, and boy,
where they are they sweet. We've tried to cut down
on some of the sweetness, but she didn't like them
that way. She loved all the sugar. She was a
(35:02):
chocolate person, and if she could have put chocolate in
these cheese squares, she would have. But that's one of
the things that when we come together we like to
talk about those types of things as well, because it
brought us so much joy eating these cheese squares and
knowing that she had made them for us. And so
that's something that is a tradition that we carry on
(35:26):
to know that our sister is a little bit closer
to us when we make those cheese squares and we
eat them as a family. So she can't be here
and she can't speak for herself, but we hope that
people will know that the reason that we do these
interviews or podcast or whatever it is, social media campaigns,
billboard campaigns is that we miss our sister and we
(35:49):
want to know what happened to her, and we want
to get justice for her, and we won't stop fighting
and searching various avenues until until we feel like justice
has been served and whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Prince Ella is more than just a name on a
cold case file. She was a sister, a daughter, a friend,
a young woman full of life and love taken far
too soon. We want to thank Kim and the rest
of Prince Ella's family for allowing us the opportunity to
(36:31):
share a little bit more about such a wonderful woman.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
This episode was researched by Hailey Gray of Hailey Gray Research.
This episode was written and produced by us. Please consider
leading us a five star review on your favorite podcast
platform or sharing us with a friend. You can follow
us on all of our social medias and continue to
share our flyers and campaigns. It truly helps us help
(36:58):
more families,
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