CAMDEN, NJ – Dyamond Manire says the last day with her 18-year-old daughter, Jewel Manire, in October 2012, was perfect.
They held a birthday celebration for Jewel’s four-year-old son, with all their loved ones.
“Her laugh, her smile, her goofiness, I just, I miss her,” said Dyamond. “I didn’t think that waking up from celebrating a beautiful day with my grandson would end up with me not ever seeing my daughter again.”
The backstory:
Just after 11:30 p.m., on the night of October 6th, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office says police were called to the area of 2542 Morgan Boulevard for multiple people shot, and found Jewel and a 19-year-old man, Khalil Gibson, shot to death.
Jewel’s cousin, Quajena Pouncy, 15-years-old at the time, was also in the car and rushed to the hospital. Two other teenage girls were shot and able to run to safety to call 911.
Pouncy says the shooting left her legally blind in one eye with mobility issues on her left side.
“I’m still hurt by it and I’m still living with it daily because I don’t have them, they was my most important people,” she said.
Investigators say they learned all the victims were in Jewel’s Chevrolet Lumina outside Gramercy Park Apartments Building H, when a man approached the vehicle and opened fire.
They say the shooter then got into the car and drove it down “Snake Alley,” which runs alongside Congress Road, and parked the vehicle on Morgan Boulevard, where police found the victims.
Pouncy says she remembers Jewel’s reaction when the gunman approached.
“I noticed that it was real once she dropped her keys and put her hands up, ‘Just don’t us, take the car, take whatever you want, just don’t hurt us,’” she said. “My boyfriend, like he instantly jumped over top of me, and once he jumped over top of me, I knew it was real, but once he got shot and like it came out of him and went into me, like I felt it, but I didn’t know what was going on.”
Dyamond says the thought that her daughter pleaded for her life still haunts her.
“That was a monstrous move, that was a coward move, like you shot those kids in the car and my daughter died immediately even with her pleading, this person was a monster,” she said.
What’s New:
As they approach 13 years without answers, Detective Daniel Crawford, who investigates cold cases with the Homicide Unit, says investigators recovered a machete in the vehicle, as well as ballistic and other evidence.
He says they just submitted that evidence for DNA testing at two different laboratories.
“The DNA testing now that’s available is much more sensitive than the testing that was available back in 2012 and 2013, when the original testing was done, so of course we are optimistic that a profile will be able to be developed,” he said. “Obviously we can’t guarantee any particular outcome, but what we can certainly guarantee is that no stone is going to go unturned.”
For Dyamond, it won’t bring her daughter back, and for her niece, it won’t take away her injuries. Still, both say it is time for answers.
“The hardest thing now is my grandson because he says, I just want to know what happened to my mom,” said Dyamond. “I wish I had those answers for him, I do.”
What you can do:
Anyone with information on the October 6th, 2012 double homicide is asked to call the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office at 856-225-2593.
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