Kendall and Sealey of…
By Jennifer Warren
Icicle lights left over from the holidays hung dark and jagged from the eaves of Roxanne Kendall’s two-story house Friday as her family gathered around the home to mourn the murder-suicide of Kendall and her husband Lloyd Sealey.
Kendall and Sealey of 110-18 Union Hall St. in South Jamaica had a history of domestic confrontations, but that ended at 4:45 p.m. Friday when, according to police, Sealey, 53, took a .380 handgun and shot Kendall, 40, in the head. He later turned the gun on himself and died of a gunshot wound to the head, said Detective Carolyn Chew, a police spokesman.
For months Kendall had been trying to kick Sealey out of the home they had shared, said a neighbor who asked that her name not be used. In recent days, she had moved in with her mother where her 20-year-old son Curtis also lived, said the neighbor.
On Friday, the morning of her murder, Kendall had just filed for an order of protection against her husband, said police spokesman Louis Cruz.
Sealey had not been living in the house for several months, said a friend of the family who asked that her name not be used. But just hours after filing for protection, Kendall called Sealey to ask him to bring keys to let her into the locked house.
The couple often argued over the property, the friend said, and while Kendall owned it, Sealey insisted she sell the house and give half of the proceeds to him.
Before returning to meet him she called the police for an escort.
“They said they had no one available, so she just came home alone,” the neighbor said. “Her mother told her not to, but she came home anyway.”
On Friday evening, as Kendall’s mother and siblings waited in the cold, damp air outside the taped-off house, Kendall’s son Curtis stepped out from it.
It was Curtis who had discovered his mother and stepfather in the basement, a friend said.
He left the house without a jacket, sinking his hands deep into his pockets as he wandered onto a neighbor’s lawn.
Family members swarmed around the baby-faced 20-year-old, clutching him tightly as he wept and wailed, before crumpling to the ground.
A neighbor who watched the police converge on the house that evening, said that although she heard the couple argue, she never expected it to end this way.
The couple, who came here together from Guyana more than 20 years ago, often went to church together, the friend said.
Kendall was a nurse’s aide at a local hospital.
“She was 40 but she was lively,” the friend said of the woman who was fun-loving and enjoyed Reggae music and clubs. Sealey, a construction worker who found work on and off depending on the weather, was described as quiet and presentable.
“He was an in-the-house kind of a guy,” the neighbor said.
Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
