PHOENIX — This week marks five months since the body of Zariah Dodd was found. The 16-year-old was found shot and killed in a West Valley park.
Now her former foster mom is speaking to ABC15 about what this tragic loss means to her, and why she fears the system failed Zariah.
“Zariah, she was 13 years old when I took her in. She was a prayer that was answered,” Richilyn Fox, Zariah Dodd’s former foster mom, said. “She was resilient, she was bubbly, but it was more than that. Zariah has so much fire, she has so much compassion.”
In July of this year, Dodd was living in a group home in Surprise and 22 weeks pregnant. She was found the morning of July 5th, shot and killed in Marivue Park. Her unborn daughter was also killed.
“When I got that, it immediately was painful,” Fox said. “My heart sunk. I say all the time that my cries filled my apartment complex.”
Jerchi James-Gillet, 18, and Jurrell Davis, 36, face murder charges in connection with the deadly shooting. Davis is also charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, after officials determined he was the father of Dodd’s unborn child.
“My concern is that they knew about her pregnancy. So in my head, immediately, there should have been action,” Fox said.
Fox tells ABC15 she wishes that action had come from both the Department of Child Safety and police.
“That man knew the location where she was at,” Fox said. “So there should have been action where she was put in some kind of protective custody. Her phone should have been stripped, because she was still contacting that man. So there’s a lot that they could have done.”
As ABC15 has reported, the 36-year-old has been investigated for sexual abuse of minors multiple times. As far back as 2007, when he was 19, Davis was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, pleading guilty to child abuse and facing 10 years’ probation.
It leaves Fox concerned about the vulnerability of young girls in group homes.
“I absolutely believe that they failed her in that situation,” Fox said.
In the wake of this tragedy, Fox hopes more people will pay attention to potentially dangerous situations, like Zariah’s.
“To say that she was strong, it was more than that,” Fox said. “She was a young girl who had so much weight on her shoulders.”
Her wish: That other kids will have a different outcome.
You can see more of the ABC15 Investigators’ extensive coverage on high-profile cases like Dodd’s, and the push to keep kids in the state’s care safe. Find all of those stories by clicking here.
