On a tragic day in August 2017, the life of 29-year-old Chaquinequea Brodie, a Black/African American female, was cut short in a horrifying act of violence in Waterbury, Connecticut. The discovery on August 18th unfolded after neighbors reported a disturbance and found Brodie's two-year-old daughter wandering alone and crying in a parking lot. When police entered their home on Third Street, they found a gruesome scene.
Brodie and her nine-year-old daughter, My'Jaeaha Richardson, were found dead inside the apartment they had moved into only a few months prior.
The ensuing investigation quickly led to a suspect. Anthony Rutherford, 28 years old at the time and identified as Brodie's live-in boyfriend, was located and taken into custody. Authorities confirmed that Rutherford was not the biological father of the children. Neighbors reported hearing a loud argument between Brodie and Rutherford early on the morning of the murders. When he was arrested, Rutherford was in possession of a handgun. The medical examiner later determined that both Brodie and her daughter died from gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
The tragedy was compounded by a cruel irony. Four years prior, Brodie's sister, Alyssiah Wiley, had been murdered by her own boyfriend. This devastating loss spurred Brodie and her mother, Corrinna Martin, to become passionate advocates against domestic violence, co-founding the organization Mothers of Victim's Equality. Brodie served as the vice president, dedicating herself to educating others and preventing the kind of violence that had shattered her own family, only to become a victim of it herself.
Anthony Rutherford was charged with two counts of murder, along with numerous other charges including risk of injury to a child and various weapons offenses. His bail was set at over $5 million. He ultimately accepted a plea bargain and is serving an 80-year prison sentence for the murders of Chaquinequea Brodie and her young daughter.
