Girl kept father’s massacre of family secret for 2 weeks

A FATHER killed his wife and two of his children, then sent his daughter to school for two weeks, warning her not to tell or she and her brother would die too.

Police in Charlotte, North Carolina, said no one found out the children and their mother were dead until officers came to Kenneth Chapman’s door to check on his wife because her uncle had not heard from her for a while.

When police arrived, Chapman went upstairs and sent the 10-year-old girl and her two-year-old half-brother outside.

He shot at officers from the top of the stairs, police said. Then came more gunshots.

Inside, officers found Chapman dead. The bodies of his wife’s teenage daughter and the couple’s baby daughter were in a locked bedroom.

A few hours later, authorities found Chapman’s wife dead at a larger apartment.

Investigators said the surviving girl told them herfather and stepmotherargued two weeks ago, and she didn’t see 34-year-old Nateesha Ward Chapman again. That night, she heard her 13-year-old stepsister Na’Jhae Parker scream, then gunshots. Her half sister, 13-month-old Nakyiah Jael Chapman, started screaming too. Then more gunshots. Her father came out, locked the door and pointed the gun at the girl.

Police said the girl told her father, “Don’t kill me.” He said he wouldn’t kill her then because she was his first-born daughter – nor would he kill the two-year-old, his first-born son. But he said he’d kill them if they told anyone.

“Her bravery and composure was truly remarkable,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Captain Paul Zinkann said, pausing to regain his composure.

“She and her little brother are with family members and are being cared for.”

Carol Latimer, who lived next to the family for five months, said she never saw the couple fight. The Chapmans kept to themselves, and Latimer’s conversations with Nateesha Chapman never went beyond making sure the children got to the bus stop or other childcare issues.

“She was really closed as far as her personal life,”Latimer said. “We didn’t talk much unless she needed help.”

Latimer said the couple moved out of the home where Nateesha Chapman’s body was found weeks ago, and she never heard anything from the apartment or saw anyone over there again until police arrived on Tuesday.