The shooting deaths of two sisters in the southern Anne Arundel community of Lothian on Wednesday are just the latest tragedy for a grieving family.
One of the sisters spoke in February at a funeral for her nephew, who was killed fighting in Iraq. Cheryl Timmons read a letter that the soldier's wife, Breon Matlock, had written to Army Spc. Michael Benson Matlock Jr.
After the couple's first date, she wrote, "from then on it was us. ... You said, 'If we love each other we can make it work.' ... I remember the look on your face when I told you you would be a father. Your eyes brightened up."
And during their last phone conversation, the day before he died at 6:15 p.m., the two discussed plans to visit Hawaii, before their call was disconnected. "You told me you wanted to take me and Byron around the world. ... Baby, I love you so much. You are my heart forever."
Matlock, a 2005 graduate of Glen Burnie High School, enlisted in the Army in 2006. He was in Iraq as an infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division and was on his second deployment. He was killed Feb. 20 when the vehicle he was in hit a roadside bomb. The above quote is from a Baltimore Sun article by reporter Nicole Fuller, who attended the service.
Matlock had married his high school sweetheart and had a 1-year-old child. Gov. Martin O'Malley and Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold attended the funeral in Annapolis. Now the family has two more to bury.
Timmons and her sister, Sheena Blandford, were killed in their home, allegedly by Blandford's husband, Theodore Nathaniel Blandford. Police who went to his home in Prince George's County chased him into Washington and shot and killed him during a confrontation there.
The sisters were members of the First Christian Community Church in Annapolis, where the secretary confirmed that Timmons had been related to the soldier. Theywill be buried there, as he was. Funeral plans are being worked out.
