SAN ANTONIO – Now a culinary student and an aspiring chef, Terri Jo Dunmore was a 5-year-old sleeping on a sofa, when her mother and babysitter were shot to death.
“When I woke up, it was police officers and my stepbrother looking down at me, trying to wake me up,” Dunmore said.
San Antonio Police had converged on her home in the 100 block of Fredonia, more than two decades ago in February 1994.
Now considered a cold case, the victims were Dunmore’s mother, Debbie Perkins, 23, and her babysitter, Christy Kaufman, 15, who also was Perkin’s cousin.
In an interview last month, Patrick Kaufman, a family member, described how Perkins was shot in her bed, Kaufman hiding in the closet.
Police have said the suspects knew who they were looking for, but the victims were not their intended targets.
Dunmore contacted KSAT 12 News after the story aired. It was her first interview since their deaths. She said although she remembers very little about that day, she is haunted by her mother’s murder at such a young age.
“Why did it have to end at 23, while she’s six months pregnant?” Dunmore wondered.
She said even as a child, “I was looking forward to being a big sister, but that got taken from me, too.”
Dunmore said she remembers a mother who was nurturing.
“Her smile would brighten up a room. She was very beautiful and I know she loved me,” Dunmore said.
She said even so, her mother taught her right from wrong.
“Didn’t have time for crying, made sure I knew my manners. She was strict on me, but it was out of love,” Dunmore said.
But above all, Dunmore said she learned to be strong, a trait that would prove invaluable. “You got to keep one foot in front of the other and just keep moving,” Dunmore said.
Now a mother herself, Dunmore said her little boy couldn’t imagine being without her. “I wouldn’t want him to go through that,” Dunmore said after what happened to her mother. “She was killed. She was murdered. How do you explain that to a child?”
She said she believes there had to be more to their violent deaths because back then, the belief was, “Another case of black-on-black violence.”
Their murders became cold cases. Leads surfaced in 2010, but police said they didn’t pan out. All these years later Dunmore has a message for the killer or killers.
“Just do what’s right. You reap what you sow,” she said. “Tell what happened or why or something.”
Anyone with information about the 1994 double murder is urged to call Crimestoppers at 210-224-STOP.