<p>I don’t think it’s so crazy to think that, in a world that screams “MOTHER’S LOVE CONQUERS ALL”, the father might think sending the little girl to live with the mother would be best for her, or that the mother might have come up with some lie the father would believe. I’m not sure why he’s getting so much blame when it’s clearly the mother who sent her off to her death.</p>
<p>What a terrible story. I’m from Fayetteville, where this little girl lived before she was sold and murdered. Although I’m in school now, I keep close contact with my friends and family in Fayetteville, and they are all reeling from this tragedy. It has been a rough couple of weeks, as a family that was well known by my own and most of my friends was recently gunned down and murdered in cold blood in their own home. The community was appalled by that tragedy, and was starting to recover until this one hit. </p>
<p>Please keep Fayetteville in your prayers.</p>
<p>Both parents are NOT culpable. One essentially is a murderer.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How judgmental can you be?!!! </p>
<p>Gee, dad was married and had two kids with his WIFE. That makes him a despicable person, doesn’t it? Wife dies. Long after her death, while unmarried, he had sex with Shaniya’s mother Antoinette. According to him, it was a one-night stand. Do, I think this is moral? No, I do not. (And, I’ll bet I’m in the minority of people on this board in saying so.) Do I think he is the only middle-aged widower who has had sex with someone to whom he isn’t married? No, I don’t. She has child. Now, I think abortion is wrong. I know the majority of you don’t. But remember, even if you think that an abortion should have happened in this situation–again, I don’t–the MOTHER not the father made the decision to have the child. Unmarried dad raises child. Gee…he’s sounds like a terrible human being, doesn’t he?</p>
<p>His deceased wife’s father goes on national TV and blames him for Shaniya’s death. Nobody has said in this thread that THAT is an absolutely despicable thing to have done. I think it is. Your son-in-law, the father of your grandchildren, loses another child in horrific circumstances and you go on TV for your 15 minutes of fame to blame it all on him. NOW there’s a real stand up guy–and some of you believe every word he says. Why!!! And this alleged “friend” is claiming he volunteered to take Shaniya in. Friend? I think not. Why on earth do these two men, neither of whom has any biological connection to Shaniya, think that a court would give them custody? </p>
<p>After father in law, who supposedly did raise the daughter, goes on TV and blasts him, the kids step in and defend him against accusations made by their grandfather. I’m not sure that the kids didn’t want to do this themselves. </p>
<p>I’m not a saint. I don’t purport to be. But even saints have people who don’t like them. I’m not going to decide that Mr. Colman is some sort of monster because his father-in-law doesn’t like him–which is what I think one heck of a lot of you are doing.</p>
<p>To be fair to the father-in-law, he may have sincerely thought that Colman was making the wrong decision. But even if he did, even if he argued with him about it at the time, blasting him on national TV is NOT appropriate. Heck, I despise my ex-H–and with grood reason. But if he ever were in the limelight, for the sake of our offspring, I wouldn’t go to the media and publicly denounce him.</p>
<p>He had no way of knowing Antoinette was pregnant again unless she or her mother told him. Right now, the only reason we THINK she is is that her mother said so.</p>
<p>As explicity expressed in my posts, I too don’t understand this bizarre criticism of the father. Much too early in the story for that right now.</p>
<p>“It seemed to me as though some posts on this thread seemed to focus more on the action of the father rather than on the despicable actions of the mother. I was curious as to why”</p>
<p>I think the reason is that if the mother is guilty of these charges, there’s not much to say about it. She did something so unspeakable that she’s either out of her mind or evil or both. We can’t begin to understand what she did. But the father seems to be a functioning adult with his wits about him, so it’s actually possible to speculate about what might have motivated him.</p>
<p>Interesting insight, Hanna. I think you’re onto something.</p>
<p>Hanna, that is how I feel. Even the dad’s sister is saying that she knew the mom neglected her kids. No one, but dad, seemed to think taking the child there was a good idea. There is no lack of information about what a mess this mom was, but dad sends his child there after raising her for four years because mom had been doing better for 6 months? It’s not far fetched to wonder what the heck he was thinking and what his motivation was. I don’t for a minute think that he thought mom was going to sue for custody and win. I hope he is asked some tough questions about how much follow up there was after he dropped Shaniya off - if he knew what child care arrangements had been made while mom worked, why he didn’t know that Shaniya had been taken out of school, had he visited Shaniya since she was there - for a start.</p>
<p>I think that people make excuses especially to themselves.
For instance I think my sister who is a devout mormon has been abusive to her five kids.
Years ago I have seen her scream at them often and yank their arms out of their sockets- I don’t think she should have ever had two kids let alone five, but while I expressed my concern to others, they didn’t think it was " that bad".
I tried to talk to her, but I am the black sheep of the family 
and I have little contact with anyone.
I did call up CPS once, but I didn’t have any follow up info.</p>
<p>I would question that these people who were so concerned about Shaniyas well being, what exactly did they do about it? I haven’t been able to find info about their notifications to the police and CPS regarding the danger that they knew she was in.</p>
<p>“I would question that these people who were so concerned about Shaniyas well being, what exactly did they do about it?”</p>
<p>At least one person said that they offered to take custody of Shaniya so the father wouldn’t send her to live with her mother. Offering to take a child into one’s home to protect the child is showing major concern and a willingness to take major action.</p>
<p>“I think the reason is that if the mother is guilty of these charges, there’s not much to say about it. She did something so unspeakable that she’s either out of her mind or evil or both. We can’t begin to understand what she did. But the father seems to be a functioning adult with his wits about him, so it’s actually possible to speculate about what might have motivated him.”</p>
<p>I agree. The mother seems to have been trouble with a capital “T”. I want to understand how the father could have possibly thought it was a good thing to send the child back to live with her mother. Based on the mother’s recent behavior, I also doubt the story that the child was the result of a one night stand, and I suspect that her relationship with the father was longer than has been revealed. Why do I think that? Mother has a drug problem and a history of prostitution. Seems unlikely to have been able to easily pinned down paternity on any one man unless she and he had a relatively longterm relationship.</p>
<p>More information about Shaniya’s dad. More info that makes one wonder whether any of Lockart’s friends and relatives who were concerned about Shaniya contacted CPS.</p>
<p>"According to court records, Lockhart has five other children with three women. He has had custody and child support disputes involving several of the children, but there was no record of any disputes involving Shaniya or Antoinette Davis.
Tim Allen has been caring for Lockhart’s 17-year-old daughter, Cheyenne. He said Tuesday evening that he told Lockhart not to send Shaniya to live with her mother.
"I feel he is 99 percent the reason why this happened in the first place,” Allen said of Shaniya’s death.
Allen said after Shaniya went to her mother’s house, he noticed marks on her arms.
“Boyfriends and his friends would put the cigarettes out on the baby’s arms,” he said…”</p>
<p>[Police</a> have charged two in Shaniya Davis’ disappearance but no one in her death - NC Wanted](<a href=“http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/6435879/]Police”>Police have charged two in Shaniya Davis' disappearance but no one in her death)</p>
<p>NSM: Here’s another article from a local source. Is the father a saint? Nope. But …</p>
<p>[FayObserver.com</a> - Slain child’s dad says he blames himself](<a href=“http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2009/11/18/953110]FayObserver.com”>http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2009/11/18/953110)</p>
<p>The article notes that he had to be out of town for work. He agreed that Shaniya could stay with her mom while he was. Shaniya didn’t move to her mom’s house permanently, as I thought she had from news reports. She’d been splitting her time between them …or at least that’s what the article states. </p>
<p>Note that CPS did investigate Davis in connection with her treatment of her son. The case was closed and she kept custody. Lockhart wasn’t told about the investigation. It’s not clear whether CPS was aware that Davis was also caring for Shaniya.</p>
<p>The offer to take over Shaniya’s care wasn’t made because Lockhart was uninterested in his daughter. It was to be a temporary arrangement while Lockhart was away. </p>
<p>Even those who knew him and say he shouldn’t have let Shaniya stay with her mom admit that the explanation he gave was he felt she should have a chance.</p>
<p>it does sound like Lockhart and his wife split before the divorce; he’s not a widower as I thought. But it also looks like his former father-in-law was not a disinterested observer:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And read Cheyenne’s comments–it seems to be that it’s granddad, NOT dad, who has encouraged her to talk to the press. And if Cheyenne was living with Tim Allen, please note that it is her maternal grandfather, NOT her dad who has legal custody. </p>
<p>Again, I’m not claiming the man is perfect…I’m just saying that it’s unfair to judge him as harshly as some of you are based on so little information.And I don’t think that just because someone says something about you to the media that means it’s true.</p>
<p>PS–too late to edit my post above. The article NSM links says Davis had been employed since June 2008. Hard to believe she was strung out on drugs all the time but managed to work:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Additionally, please note that Davis does not have a criminal record. Yes, the police had been called to a place where she lived–but no charges were filed and there’s no reason to think Lockhart knew about it. She’d moved into her own place.</p>
<p>There’s lots of info in the FayObserver article, but it doesn’t make me feel any differently about Lockhart. It at least provides the reason he took Shaniya to her mother. I wonder why he lost the custody battle over the other kids in 1998.</p>
<p>What kind of man rapes a 5-year-old?</p>
<p>[Shaniya</a> Davis murder: what kind of man rapes a 5-year-old?](<a href=“Examiner is back - Examiner.com”>Examiner is back - Examiner.com)</p>