Photo Courtesy of Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News
Months after Destini Smothers, a young mother, was found dead in the trunk of a car in Queens, New York, her grieving mother, Loretta King, has moved to the city in search of answers.
After seeking help from the New York Police Department to no avail, King has moved from her residence in Binghamton in upstate New York to the Rockaways in Queens, where her daughter grew up in hopes that she may be closer to the truth on how her daughter died.
“Since this whole thing’s been going on, NYPD has not reached out to me one time,” King said. “I called the detective, and every time it’s, ‘Oh, he’s not in.’ I need to know where you’re at with this case because it’s my daughter.”
NYPD has only been able to tell her was an updated version of her daughter’s cause of death, which left King deeply dissatisfied.
“That don’t ease my pain,” the mom continued. “It was like I found out my daughter was killed for the first time all over again. I had to relive that trauma. I cry myself to sleep every night. My daughter is not resting because I’m not resting.”
On November 3, Smothers was looking forward to her 26th birthday, which she planned on celebrating at Bowlero in Woodside, Queens, with some friends and her boyfriend of 13 years, Kareem Flake.
Smothers was in town for Flake’s grandmother’s funeral, which she did not attend, and had also made plans to meet her mom the following day but never showed up, which led to the mother’s concern.
“I know she wouldn’t have missed that funeral,” King said, adding that Smothers and Flake’s grandmother had been very close.
The worried mother called Flake, and “He said ‘Oh, she jumped out of the car– mad because she wanted to hang with her friends,’” King said.
“You just telling me she vanished into thin air?” she asked him.
“I know my daughter,” she added. “My daughter and I are closer than close. It didn’t sit right with me.”
For months after that, Smothers’ family scoured the streets near the bowling alley, searching for her round the clock in hopes of locating her.
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However, on March 10, their search came to a devastating end when a tow truck driver found the car Smothers was located in, popped the trunk on the abandoned vehicle, and discovered her decomposing body.
Adding to King’s distress is that she didn’t give her daughter a proper farewell as her body was decomposed beyond recognition.
The grieving mother mentioned that a pestering feeling remains due to the lack of an arrest in connection with Smothers’ death.
“My daughter was found in a car that Kareem Flake told everyone she got out of,” King said. “She never got out of that car.”
Flake and Smothers had a history of domestic violence, which has led the family to raise questions.
King is planning on staying in Queens until an arrest is made in her daughter’s case.