Crime & Safety
St. Charles Mom Remembers Her Twins 1 Year After Shooting
March 10 marks one year since Randall Coffland shot Brittany and Tiffany, both 16, and then shot himself inside their St. Charles condo.
ST. CHARLES, IL – Anjum Coffland is a survivor. She survived being shot by her estranged husband and then, even more painful, survived one year without her beloved twins, Brittany and Tiffany. This past Saturday marked one year since she walked into her husband’s condo at 450 S. 1st Street and learned he had turned a gun on their 16-year-old girls.
“When I figured out it was actually true is when he shot me in the leg,” Anjum Coffland told Patch in an interview Friday. “I thought, ‘this man actually murdered my kids.’ I went into shock.”
Many know the details that followed as the story has been reported in the media in the past year. Both Anjum and Randall called 911. Randall, 48, told authorities, "I just shot my two kids, and I shot my wife and now I'm going to shoot myself." He proceeded to go to the master bathroom where he followed through, dying at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound while Anjum remained injured in the kitchen.
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In an interview Friday, Anjum shed some more light into what happened in the weeks prior to the shooting and the months after.
The Weeks Before …
A month before the shooting, Anjum and Randall separated and Anjum moved out. The couple had experienced their ups and downs over their 28 years, and Anjum said she had simply fallen out of love with Randall.
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The couple decided to have the twins stay with Randall in his condo near downtown St. Charles. Anjum got a one-bedroom condo just blocks away.
In the months following the tragedy, Anjum said people have questioned her on the decision to let the girls stay with Randall. She explained that logistically, there was not enough room in her one-bedroom condo. But even more importantly, she wanted the twins to feel comfortable in their bedrooms and homes while Randall and her decided their next steps.
She said she had their best interest in mind. Randall, she said, had never been violent with the twins and was a good dad.
“I felt 100 percent that the twins were OK with him,” she said. “They were in a comfortable place. They had their own condo. For me, I just couldn’t say, ‘you are coming with me. You are not going to have your own things.’”
The family had moved to St. Charles just two years earlier from Oswego – their “fresh start,” Anjum said. The twins loved living in the downtown condo. She said their friends thought it was fun to visit – they all lived in single-family homes so the novelty of the condo was seen as cool. It was close to downtown, restaurants and a Starbucks where the teens would go to hang out.
The twin sisters attended Oswego High School as freshmen before the move. The girls were juniors at St. Charles East High School at the time of the shooting. Tiffany was an animal lover who was Anjum's "book worm" and worked at a pet store. She was a "budding fashionista" who was training for her first marathon, according to her obituary. Brittany, who worked in the bakery department at Blue Goose Market, was on the cheerleading team at St. Charles East. Brittany loved music and helping people and would brighten everyone's world with her infectious smile, according to her obituary.
The girls, she said, really “came out of their shell” in St. Charles.
After moving out, Anjum said Randall, who was already controlling, became even worse. He would not allow the girls to come visit her in her condo. They could only get together at the First Street condo and Randall had to be there.
The couple met up the day before the shooting. Randall went to Anjum's condo where he was drinking wine. He told her he wanted to get back together. But Anjum said she wanted a divorce, according to the police reports.
On Friday morning, Randy sent Anjum messages stating he was going to kill himself. Later that afternoon, he contacted her and told her "he had secrets, too." He then told her to come over so he could "tell her and show her the secrets," according to the police reports. Anjum tried to get him to tell her over the phone but he insisted she come over to his place.
A woman living at the apartment complex told police she saw Randall, whom she had met before, and a woman with dark hair who was wearing sunglasses walking up the stairs behind him at the complex at about 4:45 p.m. on Friday, according to the police reports. Randall appeared to be in a hurry because he was taking two to three stairs at a time.The woman stated Anjum and Randall did not appear upset and were not arguing.
When the two got up to the apartment, Anjum said she went into the kitchen. When she turned around, Randall was holding a gun. She asked him where he got a gun and asked about the girls. He told her they were already dead, according to police. He shot Anjum in the leg and told her he wanted her to live "so she could live with this the rest of her life." He then ran into the bedroom and locked the door.
Anjum has wrestled with the “why” from that day. Why did this happen? Randall had never threatened the girls or been violent with them. He loved them, Anjum said during a Friday interview with Patch.
“He was very bitter,” Anjum said. “I don’t know why he did what he did, and I’ll never know. It used to eat me up, but I wasn’t inside his head. I don’t know what he was thinking.”
As for whether Randall had any undiagnosed mental illness issues, Anjum said she could not comment due to a pending ongoing investigation.
The Minutes, Days And Months After ….
Anjum said her world turned very dark after she lost Brittany and Tiffany.
In the minutes following the shooting, authorities arrived and began their investigation. Anjum was taken to the hospital and recovered. Anjum said there was a funeral – thanks, mostly, to her “amazing” friends who helped to organize it. Both Brittany and Tiffany were buried in North Cemetery. Their 17th birthday came just days after the shooting. It was all a blur, Anjum said.
And the following six months would continue to be a blur as well. A very dark blur. She would have to return to work and life would have to get back to a new normal.
She found the quiet of her home, and not having her typical routine, absolutely numbing. Tiffany and Brittany were her only children.
“I didn’t have a family to take care of. They were my life,” she said. “And all of a sudden, they were gone. I didn’t have to make dinner. I didn’t have to say over and over again, ‘pick up your shoes.’ And I missed it.”
She started to pull herself together: “one minute at a time and then a half-hour at a time” and so on. She said she had a lot of support and friends constantly checking on her.
“What choice do I have. Either I live or I die,” she said. “I can’t do anything stupid. I am going to live for my twins.”
And, she was going to live to show Randall he “could not break me.”
Remembering Her Girls
On the one-year anniversary of the girl’s death, Anjum will meet with close friends and family to visit the girl’s grave at North Cemetery. She has ordered “a ton of” flowers that they will lay at the grave. Then they will head back to her home to share stories about her girls.
And Anjum loves to talk about her girls. She is still a proud mom.
“They were amazing people,” Anjum said. She knew this while they were alive. And after they died, all of their friends and acquaintances shed more light into their character and strengths.
“They told me, ‘these girls are the most beautiful and happy girls,’” she said. “I raised them well. They were such sweethearts. They didn’t care about race or background or where you came from. They loved their friends.”
The girls would’ve turned 18 this coming Wednesday, March 14. And Anjum has planned a community gathering from 6 to 8 p.m. at Baker Community Center, 101 S. 2nd Street. There will be birthday cake and anyone is welcome to stop out to celebrate their lives, Anjum said.
The gathering, Anjum said, is also her way of thanking the community and all of those who helped following the girl’s death. It’s also meant to celebrate the girl’s lives.
“I wasn’t able to get out thank you cards and thank everyone I meant to,” said Anjum, adding that she was in such shock following the tragedy. “This is my way of thanking everyone.”
And for her, it will be therapeutic. She said she is never going to stop being that proud mom who loves to talk about her sweet girls.
“They mean everything to me,” Anjum said. “I am never going to let that die. I’m never going to be hush-hush about it. That won’t end. They are still my world.”
Main photo caption: Brittany and Tiffany Coffland/Photo credit: Anjum Coffland
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