[VA] Fired Deputy Daniel refused to let his teen son Sabree return to mom. R.I.P. Renay and Sabree

Sabree Daniel

"... and I hope I will be saved from my pain with love..."

SIX YEARS AGO:

Jamie Lee Daniel Jr., 43, a former Louisa County (Virginia) Sheriff's Office detective and University of Virginia police officer, murdered his wife, Renay, 49, and his 17-year-old son from an earlier marriage, Sabree, on June 1st, 2005. Jamie Daniel was fired from LCSO for undisclosed reasons. Sabree just wanted to go back to live with his mom, but his father wasn't gong to let him do that. (Jamie Daniel, his wife Renay, and son Sabree were currently living in Florida.)

MOM, TEEN FOUND SLAIN IN WELLINGTON
Palm Beach Post
By Rochelle Brenner, Kelly Wolfe, Scott McCabe
Saturday, June 04, 2005
[Excerpts] The bodies of a slain mother and her 17-year-old stepson were found Friday in their peach two-story home in an idyllic gated community. While neighbors gathered around police tape at the home in the Black Diamond community, Palm Beach County sheriff's officials talked to the woman's husband, a former sheriff's deputy from Virginia, who was being held in a psychiatric ward. Renay Daniel, 49, was discovered in her bedroom around 1:30 p.m. Friday by a worried sister who showed up after Daniel didn't return calls for two days... Jamie Daniel went to the Royal Palm Beach police station around 8 a.m. Friday — hours before the bodies were found — and talked about killing himself, so he was sent to a nearby mental institution under the Baker Act, police spokeswoman Erin Giannotti said. The act allows authorities to hold people in protective custody for mental evaluations if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others... Sebree Daniel, who is Jamie Daniel's son from a previous marriage, wanted to move back with his mother but that his father didn't want him to go...

KILLED TEEN, DAD HAD STRAINED TIES
Palm Beach Post
By Kathleen Chapman
Sunday, June 05, 2005
[Excerpts]...Jamie Daniel had brought his 17-year-old son, Sabree, to live with him and his new wife, Renay, in Florida for the year, Lee said. But his son was unhappy. Daniel felt like he had failed. Sabree had just finished his school year at Palm Beach Central High and wanted to go back to live with his mother, who had raised him in St. Louis after the divorce from Daniel years ago. But Daniel refused to let him go. Twice, Sabree missed scheduled flights to St. Louis because his father didn't take him to the airport until his planes were in the air, Lee said. Wednesday night Sabree again told his father his stay in Florida wasn't working out. He wanted to leave immediately. [Jamie Daniel's best friend Chalres] Lee said he went to eat with them that night at a McDonald's in Boynton Beach. He told Daniel he shouldn't force the boy to stay. Daniel agreed to put his son on a flight to St. Louis the next morning, Lee said. He didn't hear from them agai... Daniel is now barred from leaving the mental hospital he checked into Friday morning... Choking back tears, Jacqueline Daniel said Saturday she doesn't believe her brother is capable of hurting anybody... [Jamie's current wife] Renay was classy and elegant, Lee said, pleasant to talk with. She had a son of her own, who came down from Gainesville after the slayings... Jamie Daniel loved his son "tremendously," Lee said, but didn't know how to parent the teen. He tried tough discipline, "almost like the military," Lee said. He tried to get him to talk more with girls and stop wearing his black clothes...

EX-LOUISA DEPUTY EYED IN FLORIDA DOUBLE HOMICIDE
Daily Progress
By Reed Williams
June 7, 2005
[Excerpts] Authorities in Florida are calling a former area law-enforcement officer a “person of interest” in the killings of his wife and 17-year-old son, whose bodies were found in their home near West Palm Beach. Jamie Daniel Jr., a former Louisa County deputy and University of Virginia police officer, has been in a mental ward since a few hours before his 49-year-old wife, Renay, and son, Sebree, were found dead in their house Friday in a gated community in Wellington. Both suffered multiple gunshot wounds... No charges have been placed in what authorities are calling a double homicide...

TEEN ONCE CONSIDERED SUICIDE BEFORE ENDING UP AS VICTIM IN DOUBLE MURDER
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Shahien Nasiripour
Posted June 7 2005
[Excerpts] Tormented and lonely, 17-year-old Sebree Daniel once contemplated taking his own life, according to his mother and police records. But he didn't die at his own hands; Sebree and his stepmother, Renay Daniel, were killed in a double homicide... The only "person of interest" in their deaths is father and husband Jamie Daniel Jr... "I think Sebree is happy now," his mother, Sonji Daniel of St. Louis, said Monday. "He's finally at peace. He was so sad living there." Sebree was supposed to fly back to his mother in St. Louis early Wednesday, but he didn't catch his flight, she said. Sonji Daniel said her son was unhappy living with his dad. "He'd control my son's every move," she said. "[Sebree would] call me every night crying. [Jamie Daniel] just wouldn't let him be" On May 12, sheriff's deputies responded to the Daniel home in the Black Diamond community after learning Sebree was thinking of suicide. A family member in New Jersey called police after Sebree sent her a text message from his cell phone saying he was going to kill himself on Dec. 20, his 18th birthday, records show. Sebree told police he didn't want to live with his father. "My son was shy and introverted," Sonji Daniel said. "He didn't fit in. He was depressed, and he didn't know what to do." Sebree was taken to a mental health center. His mother bought him a plane ticket to St. Louis. Sebree was set to fly at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. Sonji Daniel went to the airport early so she could see her son walking toward her off the plane, but Sebree missed his flight. She scheduled another flight for that afternoon, but Sebree missed that flight, too. Sonji Daniel scheduled another flight, this time for 8:15 a.m. the next day. He didn't make that one, either. On Friday afternoon, her son was found dead. Sonji Daniel keeps recycling the same thought in her mind. "He flew to a better place."

SLAIN TEEN ALWAYS SMILING, FRIENDS SAY
Palm Beach Post
By Rochelle Brenner
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
[Excerpts] Sabree Daniel moved to Wellington only a few months before he was killed. At 17, he spent much of his time trying to be like other teenagers. He was in the small groups of teens at The Mall at Wellington Green going from Hot Topic to Spencer's Gifts to the Food Court. He'd be wearing his glasses, black pants and a punk rock T-shirt with the name of a band like Slipknot or Korn. He called his friends when he said he would, wrote a Web blog, and organized chat rooms. And even though law enforcement reports show he was suicidal and batting heads with his father over his Goth lifestyle, friends say he never complained and was always smiling. It came as a shock to those who knew Daniel to find out he was shot down, along with his stepmother, 49-year-old Renay Daniel — and that Sabree Daniel's father is considered to be the main suspect... The news of the Daniel family tragedy spread quickly among Sabree Daniel's peers, appearing within hours on Web blogs and instant messages. In one blog, a friend wrote, "His father really hated the "gothiness" of him and hated how he dressed and who he hung out with (i.e. me and my friends). He will be sorely missed by us all." In Wellington, Jeff Ryan and Alex Glick, both 15, could count on seeing Daniel almost every day. If he were alive, he would've been with them at the mall on Tuesday. Instead, they were talking about his death. "Why did it have to happen to such a nice kid?," asked Glick... Ryan and Glick said Daniel rarely talked about his home life, except to say he couldn't wait to go back to live with his mother in St. Louis. "He sounded happy about going to St. Louis so I was happy for him. She didn't hassle him. She understood why he wanted to dress differently"... In his writings, he left behind what could be a memorial for his life. How he liked anime (Japanese comics) and called himself a "wanderer"...

FATHER CHARGED IN TWO MURDERS
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Shahien Nasiripour
June 9, 2005
[Excerpts] The father and husband of the victims in last week's double homicide in a gated Wellington community was arrested Wednesday and charged with their deaths, the Sheriff's Office said. Jamie L. Daniel Jr., 43, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of Renay and Sebree Daniel... Palm Beach County sheriff's detectives and family members said Jamie Daniel's relationship with his wife and son frayed as the couple struggled with rising debt and the father and son clashed about the 17-year-old's Gothic-style clothing and his desire to live with his mother in St. Louis... Jamie Daniel tried to cover up his crime, an arrest report said. He tied a towel around the gun to muffle the noise, detectives think. And he told Sebree's mother, Sonji Daniel of St. Louis, that Sebree boarded his Thursday morning flight to see her. Jamie Daniel also called his wife's office to tell them she was sick and not able to work Thursday. He checked into a Palm Bay hotel that morning. He checked out about 3:30 a.m. Friday, returned a rental car, walked into Royal Palm Beach police headquarters and told them he felt like killing himself. He was taken to a mental health center at Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach...

MAN ARRESTED IN DEATHS OF WIFE, SON
WPBF
June 9, 2005
[Excerpts] Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies arrested a man Wednesday who they say shot and killed his son and wife.... Court documents show that the boy desperately wanted to move back with his mother. "He was tired of the way his father harassed him," [Palm Beach County Sheriff's Capt. David] Carhart said. "(The father was) bothering him about the way he dressed. He like dressing gothic." Court records show Daniel deliberately made his son miss several flights to St. Louis. Daniel didn't want the teen to move. The day the 17-year-old died, he missed the flight home to his waiting mother...

FORMER LOUISA DEPUTY CHARGED WITH MURDERS: Man, who had also worked for U.Va. police, is accused of killing wife, son in Fla.
Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Jun 10, 2005
A former Louisa County deputy was arrested in a mental-health facility on Wednesday and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in their Florida home. Jamie Lee Daniel Jr., 43, also a former University of Virginia police officer, is accused of killing his wife, Renay, 49, and his 17-year-old son, Sabree... "It sort of touched even the investigators -- the horror involved," said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office... A police affidavit, which describes a rocky marriage agitated by money problems, also details arguments between Daniel and his son. Sabree Daniel had threatened to kill himself and seemed desperate to move to St. Louis to be with his mother. In a cryptic phone conversation on the day the killings are believed to have occurred, Sabree told his mother that he would probably never see her again... On May 12, he sent a text message to his sister's cell phone announcing plans to kill himself on his 18th birthday in December, the affidavit states. He told a Palm Beach County deputy that he wanted to commit suicide to escape living with his father. The teen was scheduled to fly to St. Louis at 8:15 a.m. June 1 to see his mother, Sonji Daniel, but Jamie Daniel told his ex-wife that their son missed the plane because of car trouble. Another flight was scheduled for that afternoon, but the teen didn't make it aboard. He called his mother crying at 12:45 p.m. and said he was "sick and tired of his dad pulling stunts," adding that he likely wouldn't see her again, according to the affidavit. Sonji Daniel told authorities that she had heard her ex-husband in the background telling Sabree to hang up and then the phone went dead... The last known contact anyone had with Renay Daniel or Sabree was between 9:30 and 10 p.m. June 1, when Sabree spoke to his mother by phone. About 10 p.m., a neighbor heard several popping sounds coming from the direction of the Daniels' house. On June 2, Jamie Daniel called his wife's employer and said she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be in...

A TRAGEDY FOR THE TEELE FAMILY
Miami Herald
By Joan Fleischman
TALK OF OUR TOWN
Posted on Wed, Jun. 15, 2005
[Excerpts] ...[Stephanie Teele, 52, an executive with Bahamasair] grieves for her sister Renay, who died in a double murder in Wellington. Renay's husband, Jamie Lee Daniel Jr., 43, is charged with killing Renay, 49, and his son Sabree, 17, from a prior marriage. Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies believe Daniel shot them to death June 1. On June 3, Stephanie and her sisters, Helen Rich, 47, and Marsha Wilchombe, 46, went to the Daniel home to check on Renay and found her body. Deputies later discovered Sabree's body in a bathroom. Renay was office manager for Zeidler Partnership, an architectural firm with a West Palm Beach office. Daniel, an ex-cop, sold cars at Maroone Chevrolet...

DIGEST
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
July 16, 2005
[Excerpt] Prosecutors seek death penalty in murder case Prosecutors have filed a notice they intend to seek the death penalty for Jamie Lee Daniel Jr., the Wellington man accused of murdering his wife and son in June...

KILLER GETS 50 YEARS, CAN'T EXPLAIN MURDERING WIFE, SON
Palm Beach Post, United States - 14 hours ago
By Larry Keller
Friday, June 16, 2006
[Excerpts] Having just pleaded guilty to murdering his wife and son in Wellington last year and having been sentenced to 50 years in prison, this was Jamie Daniel's chance to shed light on why he did it. Why he shot and killed Renay Daniel, 49. Why he shot and killed Sabree Daniel, 17. Daniel, 44, had one of his attorneys read a statement in court on Thursday in which he said it's a question he constantly ponders. But he offered little insight. "I just lost it," he said in the statement. He didn't have a good job, couldn't get ahead, Daniel said. He loved his wife and son. "I'm the only one who should have died that night," he wrote. On that, he and his late wife's family agree. "It is my sincere hope that you rot in prison and that the rest of your life is miserable," said Stephanie Kerr, one of Renay Daniel's sisters. Her sister, Kerr said, "was so thoughtful, so graceful... a perfect mother." Daniel didn't look at her as she spoke. Another sister, Daphne Johnson, called Daniel "scum and filth" and said she hopes he rots in hell. "Jamie, you're breathing life. Your family can visit you. The closest I can get to my sister is visiting her grave site." Again, Daniel stared straight ahead. Even his stepdaughter, Nina Daniel, 23, called him "a (expletive) coward." She admonished him: "Look at me when I speak to you." He didn't. Daniel was charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm but pleaded to two counts of second-degree murder with a firearm. The 50-year sentence Circuit Judge Krista Marx imposed does not allow for less time for good behavior, meaning Daniel will be 94 before he's released. "For all intents and purposes, you'll be paying for this crime the rest of your life," Marx told him....

AT TEENS' MYSPACE MEMORIALS,LIFE GOES ON AS LOVED ONES GRIEVE
Palm Beach Post
By Allyson Bird
Oct 10, 2006
[Excerpts] ...As MySpace.com soared in popularity as a social networking site, it presented an unusual question: What happens when the young people behind lively online personas die? The short answer seems to be: nothing. Their MySpace pages live on, mostly busier than before, and memorial pages crop up in their honor. "And, essentially, they're permanent," said Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and a nationally known MySpace researcher. "There's something of value psychologically in doing this." When teens visit a crash site or grave marker, they grieve alone, he said. But at virtual memorials, they meet an entire peer community grieving... And you wouldn't know Sabree Daniel died if you looked at one comment in between the RIPs on his MySpace page: Another teen asks whether Daniel knows when the next Linkin Park CD comes out... Daniel gave his mother his MySpace password a few days before his death and told her to check out his page. In his "about me" comments, he mentioned plans to move back to St. Louis, Mo., where she lives. Sonji Daniel remembered the page a few days after her son's death and found a Web log passage called "Hope," which she read at his funeral: "I see the Light again to the Darkness, and I hope I will be saved from my pain with love." A self-proclaimed Goth who liked heavy metal music, creative writing and shopping at the mall, Daniel set his MySpace tag line as "The Living Dead DO Exist!!"...
[police officer involved domestic violence oidv intimate partner violence ipv abuse law enforcement public safety lethal fatality fatalities murder double homicide florida statea virginia state politics child children visitation alienation of affection]