Grandmother: Sema'j's Mother Sheri Gordon Killed Her

On Tuesday night in Chicago, Bishop Gregg L. Gregg held a press conference emphasizing that three women will be cooperating with the Will County Sheriff's Department in connection with the still-unsolved April homicide of little Sema'j Crosby inside of her home in Joliet Township. Tuesday's event was attended by the dead baby's grandmother, Darlene Crosby, and family friend Tamika Robinson. Both women told reporters they had nothing to do with Sema'js death. During a question-and-answer session with reporters toward the tail end, Crosby revealed she believes Sema'j was killed by her mother, Sheri Gordon.

"I feel as though she did it out spite," Darlene Crosby declared, referring to Sheri Gordon. "In my eye, there is only one woman for Sheri, that's Sheri."

One of the reporters had asked Semaj's grandmother why she had not spoken to Sheri Gordon since early May, at the time of the little baby's funeral.

"Because I feel as though she did this," Darlene Crosby bluntly responded. "I don't have anything to say to her. I gotta deal with this everyday ... Sema'j was grandbaby ... Do I want to see Sheri? No. Do I believe Sheri did this? Yes, I do. Can I say I seen her do something? No, I can't. But in my heart I feel as though she did do this ... Will I speak to Sheri? No. For what?

Darlene Crosby also told reporters that Sheri Gordon was the first person involved in the case to retain a lawyer. She said that Sheri Gordon was the last known adult who was with Sema'j on the afternoon of her last day alive.

"She never left the house to go search for the baby ... we all did. We here were all looking for the baby. Sheri was still there," Darlene Crosby recalled.

Darlene Crosby also said that she nor Tamika Robinson were even thinking at the time of casting an eye of suspicion on Sheri Gordon.

"Why would I worry about her when she was in the care of her mother?" Darlene Crosby asked, referring to Sema'j.

During Tuesday's event, the following rough timeline was given:

3 p.m. Several family and children were outside, playing, dancing, listening to music.

3:45 p.m. Sheri Gordon brought Sema'j into the house apparently to change her diaper.

5:15 p.m. Sheri Gordon begins yelling, "Where's my baby?"

6 p.m. Semaj gets reported missing.

Darlene Crosby and Robinson both insisted they were outside the entire time Sema'j went missing. Robinson said she did not arrive at the house, actually, until after the child disappeared, perhaps around 4 p.m.

Both women told reporters that Gordon did not let them inside the house on Louis Road. Sema'js dead body was later found under the couch. That house burned down days later in a suspected arson.

Darlene Crosby remembered that her focus that day was on looking outside for Sema'j, thinking the toddler may have wandered off.

"I'm granny. You don't expect a child to be with the mother and poof, the baby is gone," she recalled.

However, Darlene Crosby said she was not in a position to speculate how Sema'j died, though she does suspect that Sheri Gordon, the mother, was responsible. "I can't see through a house, through a building," she said. "Somebody knows something, I'm telling you."

Robinson also told reporters that absolutely had nothing to do with Sema's death. She also pointed out that the Will County Sheriff's Department has been wrong for many months for charactering her as being one of the four women who all have lawyers and are refusing to cooperate with detectives.

"I still don't have a lawyer, period," Robinson said. "I never had one."

"I ain't seen no baby," Robinson said. "They said Sheri took the baby in the house because she was fussy and (to) change her Pamper. I didn't see nobody do anything because I didn't see the baby."

At Tuesday night's press conference at New Generation Harvest Church on Chicago's South Ashland Avenue, Bishop Greer announced that he hoped the renewed cooperation of Robinson, Darlene Crosby as well as Crosby's daughter, Lakerisha Crosby, will help the Will County Sheriff's Department gain a clearer understanding of who may be the culprit.

Last Thursday, Greer helped organize a birthday party in Joliet in honor of what would have been Sema'js second birthday. Several dozen people attended the event held on Doris Avenue, but moments after a soloist sang "Happy Birthday" to Sema'j, Sheri Gordon, the child's mother, abruptly rose from her seat and ran out the door, ducking reporters and refusing to be interviewed.

That night, Darlene Crosby and her daughter Lakerisha Crosby were in attendance and they made themselves available to press, talking about Sema'j's case for considerable length of time.

"Hopefully, this will pressure the person to come forward," Greer said Thursday night.

Watch Now: Grandmother Says Mother Killed Sema'j

Images via Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak