CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- The mother of a Chesterfield double homicide victim said a poem her daughter wrote when she was 22 years old sheds light on why she allowed her estranged boyfriend, Stafford Shaw, to visit her home after she took out a protective order against him.
According to Chesterfield Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Caroon, Shaw admitted he killed Morgan Rogers and their daughter, Leah, before he wrecked on I-295, and killed two more people.
Katrina White said while going through her daughter's things she discovered a poem titled “Fatherless,” which reads in part:
“I’m ok even though I don’t have a father, no one to talk to about boys or what it takes to be a great father…maybe I just want my kid to have a great father, see I don’t have a father, I have a sperm donor…for all the single mothers be strong for your children they need you there cuz I am an example of a fatherless life but one strong black mother.”
Morgan and Leah
As a result, White said because her daughter did not have a father figure "she was willing at any price to make sure that little girl had a father in her life."
White said Shaw violently beat her daughter, which led to Rogers taking out a protective order against him. However, she maintains that she could not bring herself to keep Shaw out of her home because of their daughter.
“The baby started saying, 'Daddy,' cuz he was over there all the time," White explained. "And Leah loved him, and it broke her heart that she didn’t have her dad, so she allowed him to start coming over to see the baby cuz she didn’t want her child to cry for her dad.”
Katrina White
But, shortly after, White said Rogers finally reached a tipping point.
“The day before she died she called me, and she said, 'Mom, I’m done, but I don’t know how to get out.' She said, 'How do I get away from it?'” White said.
Photographs on the door of a Chesterfield home are somber reminders of one man's unspeakable actions.
Chesterfield Police said text messages and phone conversations prove Shaw admitted he killed Rogers and Leah before leading police on a high speed chase that ended on I-295 when he hit another car head on killing himself and two others.
While driving, Shaw allegedly told family members that Rogers had killed her own daughter, so he had to kill her, but White said she knew all along those were lies.
Stafford Shaw
“We never questioned for one second what happened," White said. said. "I knew my daughter, I knew what kind of mother she was, she loved that little girl with all of her heart.”
White said it was that love that kept her daughter tied to an abusive man, which is a situation she wants other women who are involved in something similar to escape from before its too late.
“Get him away from you, if you have to leave town, do whatever you have to do to get away from him, cuz there are a lot of them out there just like him, they will kill you, not only you but they will kill your children,” White said.
