ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. — "This is Donovan. He goes everywhere I go,” said Veronica Bailey, holding up a necklace with her son’s picture on it.
For Bailey, it’s a way to hold him close.
“I wear this ring because he liked the color blue,” said Bailey as she holds up a ring she put on the same necklace.
Bailey still uses the color blue to decorate her house in Reserve during Christmas, to keep her son’s memory alive.
“It might sound silly to some people, but I honestly believe he’s pleased when I do it,” Bailey said.
It’s been a decade since she and her husband Herman last saw their son Donovan Bailey, 29. They say Donovan was dropping off some friends on E. 13th Street the night of April 17, 2013, when someone started shooting.
“Every night if that phone rings past ten o’clock, I relive that all over again, my wife telling me, ‘Herman, they done shot Donovan,’” said Herman Bailey.
The Baileys say St. John the Baptist Parish investigators believe their son was the intended target. Ten years later, the Baileys are still left wondering why the youngest of their three sons was killed.
“I don’t care how much I might suffer here, how hard it might be for me here, God is going to take care of it and that’s what gives me peace,” Veronica Bailey said.
Donovan spent ten years working at a grain elevator in Destrehan. His parents say he was a hard worker and dreamed of becoming a music producer. He was also looking forward to buying a house to provide for his two kids, who no longer have a father.
“As their grandparents, we feel their pain,” Herman Bailey said. “I need those kids to know why their daddy was killed and by who.”
The street where the shooting happened is now abandoned but the love for their son never will be.
“I go back there about once a week, just to be there sometimes,” Herman Bailey said.
“I’m not going to tell nobody. It’s not hard on me. It’s hard on me. It’s desperately hard on me,” Veronica Bailey said.
Memoires of Donovan hang all around the Bailey’s home.
“Donovan as a kid, he was always a character,” laughs Herman Bailey.
From baby pictures to ones of Donovan holding his kids, for Herman, they can be hard to look at.
“For him to be taken from us, the past ten years have been hell,” Herman Bailey said. “To watch his son come up without his father, to watch his daughter graduate and her father wasn’t there, I don’t wish this on nobody.”
What they do wish for is closure
“If I don’t get closure here, we all got to die. We all have to pay for what we’ve done, even me. There’s a God. What man don’t know, God knows,” Veronica Bailey said.
Nine months after Bailey was killed, tips to Crimestoppers led to the arrest of a man who was charged. A witness then recanted, leaving the case open.
There’s still a Crimestoppers reward of up to $2,500 dollars in this case. Tips to Crimestoppers are anonymous. You can call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
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