Making of a Tragedy

By then, Brittany had been moved to Booker T. Washington Public Charter School for Technical Arts, and Tatianna, N'Kiah and Aja were enrolled in Meridian Public Charter School. Eventually the family moved into the rowhouse on Sixth Street.

At Meridian, Tatianna was in the fifth grade, N'Kiah in kindergarten and Aja in preschool. "They came to school together and walked each other to class," said Vincent Blount, an assistant principal. "They were very loving kids," he said, with "no behavior issues."

But they didn't stay long. Fogle died Feb. 19, 2007, at 37. A month later, Jacks showed up at Meridian to withdraw the girls. "She was going to home-school them," Blount said.

Fogle's death devastated Jacks, Richardson said. And it appears to have accelerated her alleged homicidal descent.

The rowhouse used to be filled with furniture, Richardson said. But when she visited Jacks not long after the funeral, "the bottom floor was empty." She said Jacks told her that insects had infested the furniture and that she had thrown it out.

"I thought that was kind of strange," Richardson said. But otherwise, "she didn't seem any different. She never really said, 'I need help, can you do this, can you do that?' She was quiet, she kept a lot inside." Richardson periodically stopped by the rowhouse to see Jacks and the girls, but no one answered the door. She eventually assumed they had moved.

The relative of Fogle's who spoke on the condition of anonymity said she and other family members also had trouble getting in touch with Jacks after Fogle's death. One time when she stopped by the rowhouse, the relative said, "there on the doorstep was a big, gray cat -- dead. It was decomposing." She said she knocked on the door but no one answered.

Later, the relative said, Jacks telephoned her, demanding: "What you doing at my house?" The relative said she told Jacks that she was worried about the girls, and Jacks assured her they were okay.

The relative said other family members had similar experiences. One cousin said they had $700 in child support checks from Brittany's father, but could not get in touch with Jacks to deliver them. Another relative, visiting the rowhouse, noticed piles of smashed furniture in the yard.

Looking inside, the relative saw a disquieting message written on a downstairs wall.

"We're all going to heaven," someone had scribbled.

Staff writers Keith L. Alexander, Petula Dvorak, V. Dion Haynes and Sue Anne Pressley Montes contributed to this report.