It's difficult to truly know anyone, regardless of how close they are. From neighbors to our own family members, everyone can have a secret so close to their heart that even loved ones don't know about it. Sometimes these things are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, and others mean more than we can imagine.
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Usually, the things that we don't see in others are fairly innocuous, more overlooked than hidden. But with one woman, her benign exterior would ultimately prove to be cover for a dark secret…
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'Auntie'
Madelyn was the kind of woman you may have had growing up in your neighborhood as a kid. She was 60 years old, living in her Brooklyn apartment, and acting as a sort of "auntie" to all of the kids in the neighborhood.
Beloved Neighbor
She was well liked by the children in the neighborhood because she would give out presents around Christmas time in exchange for running errands for her. The adults found her to be kind and caring, if not a bit eccentric.
Solitary Lifestyle
Madelyn lived alone in her apartment and wasn't visited often by her remaining family, except by Gregory, the oldest of her four children. She didn't have contact with her other children, after she had given them up when they were young.
Sent Away
When asked about her other children, Madelyn would say that she'd been too poor to care for them at the time. She said that two of her other three children were put into foster care and the third was sent "to live down south."
Emotional Impact
It seemed that giving up her kids had had a big emotional impact on Madelyn, and seemed to be the source of some of her eccentricities. She'd once given a baby doll to Johana Rivera, the building's superintendent, that belonged to her daughter Latanisha even though she told her that she could never give it away.
Guilty Conscience
But perhaps the most unusual thing was that Madelyn often complained about all the noise caused by a baby who cried constantly in the building. It wouldn't be all that strange except for one thing: "there are no babies on that side of the building," Johana said.
Keeping Me Up
According to Johana, Madelyn would often say that the baby would be "crying all night, that it was screaming and wouldn't let her sleep." Despite her complaints, no one else on her floor or in the apartments above and below could hear any crying.
Tell-Tale Heart
The truth behind the sounds she was hearing was like something straight out of Edgar Allen Poe's Tell-Tale Heart. Madelyn Carmichael's dark secret began to come to light when her son Andre started to make his search for her, the biological mother he hadn't known since a young age.
Searching For Mom
Adopted and raised by another family, Andre went to Madelyn's apartment building in October of 1999, trying to make a connection. Madelyn wasn't home at the time but he spoke with Johana, who took his phone number and promised to pass it along. "He said that he had been adopted many years ago and that he just wanted to see her," Johanna said.
What About Her?
As he was searching for his mother, Andre also contacted a long-lost aunt. When he contacted her, she asked if he had ever looked up his twin sister. But as far as Andre knew he didn't have a twin sister, just two older siblings. When he asked his older sister about it, she broke into tears.
Dark Suspicion
She told Andre that she long suspected that his twin Latanisha had been killed by their mother when she was very young. More gruesome still, she thought that Madelyn might still have the girl's body in her possession.
Do The Right Thing
After a difficult discussion, the two of them decided that calling the police would be the right thing to do. Captain Ray Ferrari, commander of the Cold Case Squad was the one who eventually knocked on Madelyn's door on a Friday evening, accompanied by Johana.
Complete Breakdown
When Capt. Ferrari explained that he had a warrant to search the apartment, Madelyn immediately rushed toward a closet that she had bolted shut. She was in tears, shouting "please don't let them take me. I don't want any more suffering. Please just let me die."
Physical Collapse
As officers worked to open the closet, Madelyn began to hyperventilate and collapsed. A paramedic administered oxygen to her before she was taken in an ambulance to Kings County Hospital. While she was in transit, the police confirmed their darkest suspicions.
Carefully Wrapped
Inside the closet was a plastic-wrapped footlocker, surrounded by incense sticks, air fresheners, and baking soda boxes. That container held another footlocker wrapped in cellophane that contained the body of Latanisha Carmichael, who appeared to have been about three years old at the time of her death.
Precious Remains
Her body had been wrapped up in a baby blanket, put inside four plastic bags, then wrapped again in yellowed newspaper from November 4th, 1979 before being packed into the footlocker, surrounded by mothballs. If she'd never been killed, Latanisha would have been 23 years old.
Good Cover
The fact that Latanisha had gone missing went unnoticed because her cover story of sending her away had fit in so well with the reality of placing her two children in foster care. What she hadn't mentioned was that there had been a great deal of abuse with her children before they were put into the foster system.
Horrendous Death
The investigation revealed that Latanisha's death had been the result of physical abuse crossing and even more terrible line. Madelyn had apparently grown angry after the three-year-old had vomited and started beating her. Her oldest Gregory joined in and the two of them beat the helpless toddler to death. The events can be read about in the book Family Skeleton: A Brother and Sister's Journey from Murder to Truth.
Guilty
Madelyn and the then 38-year-old Gregory Carmichael were found guilty in the New York State Supreme Court, the mother of second-degree murder and the brother of criminally negligent homicide.
God Forgives
Madelyn was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and Gregory to two and a half to seven years. "I can forgive them," Andre said of his mother and brother's terrible deed. "I just hope God can forgive them."