KISSIMMEE, Florida (April 11, 2014) — Just days after learning of their daughter’s death, Teleka Patrick’s mother and father are speaking out for the first time.
The couple and their private investigator reached out to FOX 17. They want to let the public know they’re still actively looking for answers in their daughter’s death. They’re calling for a second autopsy to be performed.
The Patricks spoke with me from their Florida home.
“I was devastated. I pounded. I cried. I did everything, run down the street. The neighbors had to restrain me.
There are so many questions still unanswered. We weren’t hoping for this news,” Irene Patrick, Teleka’s mother said.
It’s been a hard week after an agonizing four months of not knowing where their daughter was.
“I still can’t understand why they’re saying there’s no foul play,” Patrick said.
The family is unsatisfied with the information that came out in the second and final press conference Wednesday by the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department.
“So many things. Seems like they changed their story every time,” she said.
The night Patrick went to the Radisson Hotel, at one point, authorities said Patrick wanted to check into a room
but didn’t have enough cash.
Now it’s said that she had expressed intentions to return. It’s believed Patrick changed her mind and drove to Indiana on her own.
Irene patrick said there’s no proof that her daughter was in the car alone on that fateful trip.
“She’s dead. She doesn’t have a voice. She can’t speak and most of these things are unfounded,” Mrs. Patrick said.
Detectives learned through witness statements that Patrick disappeared on occasion and would check into motels for short stints.
Irene Patrick wants more proof of that.
Also, the family isn’t buying the revelation that Patrick may have been going to St. Louis to visit a friend.
“Those are assumptions. Nobody knew where she was going. She definitely, according to everything, running for safety of her life,” Patrick said.
Now the family is calling for a second autopsy to be performed. The Patricks have no specific call to authorities.
“I don’t think they can help us. Because all along, we couldn’t interrupt the investigation process. But now we really have to seek answers. We have to do what’s necessary to bring justice for Teleka,” she said.
Mrs. Patrick said, “Yes, we wanted closure, but we hoped we had good closure. But this is no closure.”
