Shocking murders were ‘just so unbelieveable’
Barbara DeRamus sits with photos of her daughter, Cynthia Morris (37), and granddaughters, Kirsten Fritch (16) and Breanna Pavlicek (13), who were murdered in November 2016. Jesse Dobbs (22) was indicted in February 2018 for Kirsten’s murder. He also is the primary suspect in the deaths of Cynthia and Breanna.
“Cynthia had been helping me and my husband with our gun holster business. She was a hard worker, dedicated and on time for the most part. So when she didn’t show up that Tuesday morning, we were wondering what was going on.
“With her being a single mom, I was thinking that maybe her girls were giving her a hard time about getting up and getting dressed for school. Since I couldn’t reach her, I decided to drive over to their rent house.
“When I got there, I noticed that Cynthia’s car was gone. Naturally, I was thinking that she probably was driving the kids to school. Still, I went around to the back and knocked on the window because I just had this strange kind of feeling. I had my brother on the phone from Florida, and I asked him to stay on the line with me.
“I called out, ‘Cynthia, Breanna,’ because Breanna was the youngest one and she slept with her mom. When I didn’t hear anything, I came back around to the front door and it was half open. I saw the TV and the lamps were on. I called out, ‘Kirsten,’ for my older granddaughter. When there was no answer, I got very worried.
“I told my brother, and he said, ‘Barbara, do not go in there. Call the police immediately.’ And I’m so glad I didn’t go inside. Otherwise, I probably would have had a heart attack. It turned out that Cynthia and Breanna were in the master bedroom shot to death.
“When the police finally told me, I was in shock. It was just so unbelievable. I was like, ‘My daughter and my granddaughter are dead? Is Kirsten dead, too?’ That’s when they told me that Kristen wasn’t there. I said, ‘Oh, my God. Where’s Kirsten? She’s only 16. You need to put out an Amber Alert for her.’
“It turned out that Kirsten had gotten killed later that day. She was stabbed almost 60 times behind a bar in Texas City. We didn’t know until two days later when Texas EquuSearch found her body. That’s when it really hit me hard. My daughter and my granddaughters were gone.”
— Barbara DeRamus
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