Per New York Daily News, Upstate New York officials on Thursday released the identities of the victims of the horrific quadruple homicide in Troy.
Shanta Myers, 36, and her 22-year-old partner Brandi Mells were found dead Tuesday, along with Myers’ children, Shanise and Jeremiah. Shanise was 5 and Jeremiah was 11.
They were bound, and their throats were cut.
Shanise attended School 14, and Jeremiah, also known as “JJ,” attended Troy Middle School. The district will be offering grief counseling to students on Friday at 10 a.m. at the middle school.
“Our hearts are broken and our thoughts and deepest condolences are with their family and loved ones during this terribly troubling time,” school district superintendent John Carmello said in a statement Thursday.
JJ loved basketball and was a regular at the Boys and Girls Club.
“Everyone down there is crying,” Rev. Jackie Robinson of the city’s African American Pastoral Alliance said. “He was well-mannered, respectful, happy all the time.”
North Carolina resident Tracy Coleman, who says she is a relative of Shanta Myers, posted on Facebook earlier this week that “our hearts are shattered.”
A property manager had found the bodies after being asked to check on the welfare of the residents of the apartment, located in the city’s Lansingburgh section along the Hudson River just north of Albany.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that a person who committed this crime is capable of anything,” Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said.
Tedesco said during a press conference on Wednesday that the slayings do not appear to be a “random act.”
“This will be a full-court press, if you will, until we bring someone to justice,” he said.
The block where the victims lived remained closed to traffic Thursday as the investigation continued.