This Saturday night in Georgia, a mother used the last few moments in which she could control her body’s movements to conceal and protect her little daughter Cobie from the violent rage of her murderous boyfriend. There had been a long history of drunkenness and abuse, but this night saw the climax to this unbecoming drama. Jessica Arrendale was 33 years of age and continued to live with Antoine Davis for the sake of their six-month-old daughter, hoping that things would somehow change, and perhaps fearing the consequences if she tried to run away.
After becoming heavily intoxicated, around midnight Antoine chased Jessica up the stairs of their three-story residence in Oak Bluffs, Georgia. She fled with her child into the bathroom and locked the door. Soon he broke in, and she struck him with a baseball bat, whereupon he wrenched it from her hands and struck her. Then he grabbed his assault rifle and shot her directly in the head. Somehow this mother was able to twist her body away from the natural direction of fall and slide her child into the toilet bowl while her corpse covered its top, thus concealing her daughter from view.
The father was found in the child’s room, having shot himself to death. It may be he entered the room looking for little Cobie and being unable to find her quickly, simply rushed to the last person on his death list- himself. The police waited for 13 hours outside, unsure of the situation in the house and not wanting to needlessly escalate it, but finally they stormed the building and found and rescued the child. Today Cobie is recovering at a nearby children’s hospital, and her grandmother is anxiously awaiting her release.
