💔 A Mother’s Cry: The Death of Ri’Chard Walker

💔 A Mother’s Cry for Answers: The Death of Ri’Chard Walker

On April 23, 2022, 19-year-old Ri’Chard Walker was found deceased inside his apartment in Sparkman, Arkansas. Investigators ultimately ruled his death a suicide. More than three years later, his mother, Markeshia Goff, says she still has questions that have never been answered.

For this episode of Black, Brown, & Unsolved, I chose a different approach.

Instead of telling Ri’Chard’s story entirely through my voice, I wanted you to hear directly from the woman who has lived this tragedy every single day since she lost her son.

Before recording this episode, I reviewed the investigative file, spoke extensively with Markeshia, and reached out to the sheriff’s department responsible for investigating Ri’Chard’s death to offer them the opportunity to answer questions and provide comment. As of the time this episode was published, I had not received a response.

This episode centers Markeshia’s perspective, her memories of Ri’Chard, and the questions she continues to carry. My goal isn’t to tell you what to believe… it’s to introduce you to the young man behind the case file and allow his mother’s voice to be heard.

In the coming weeks, I’ll take a deeper look at the investigative file and the questions that stood out to me on my upcoming YouTube after show, Black, Brown, & Unsolved: The Reality.

If you have credible information regarding the death of Ri’Chard Walker, please contact the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Sources

• Dallas County Sheriff’s Office investigative records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
• Arkansas State Crime Laboratory / Medical Examiner records contained within the investigative file.
• Interview with Markeshia Goff, mother of Ri’Chard Walker, conducted by Amberly for Black, Brown, & Unsolved.
• Ri’Chard Walker obituary and family biography. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Until I know who left my jail, I can't kill nobody.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Imagine this. Your nineteen year old son is found dead within days. The investigation is over. His death is ruled a suicide and the case is closed, but you're left asking, did investigators talk to everyone who needed to be talked to? Did every piece of evidence tell the same story? Were the injuries fully explained? Were the right questions asked before the case was closed? And more importantly, if this were your child, would those answers be enough for you? Welcome back to Blackbrenning Unsolved. I'm your host, Amberly, and this is the case of Richard Walker. Rashad Walker was 19 years old, and according to his mother, he loved basketball, music, and making people laugh. As a little boy, everyone called him Spider-Man because he loved the superhero. More importantly, he was a son, a brother, and someone who was deeply loved by his family. On April 23rd, 2022, Rashad was found deceased inside his apartment in Spartan, Arkansas. Investigators ultimately ruled his death a suicide, and the medical examiner's preliminary opinion listed the manner of death as suicide. His family has never accepted that conclusion. And rather than tell you why, I want you to hear it from the woman who's been living this every single day. Here's my conversation with Rashard's mother, Marquisha. Hi, Markesha. First, thank you for you know trusting me to sit down again. I know every time you tell your son's story, you're having to relive one of the hardest days of your life. And I don't take that lightly. So I just want to say I appreciate you again. And before we talk about how you lost your son, I want everyone listening to know who he was. So can you tell me about Rashad?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yes. He was a caring kid. He loved music, he loved basketball, he loved being a big brother. He was an A and B student. He was just all around a ball of joy. I don't know how many ways I can describe him.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

What was he like growing up?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Honey, he was a real character. He never met a stranger. If you ever met him, you would always remember him. His nickname, when he was younger, they used to call him Spider-Man because he loves Spider-Man so much. And I took him to work with me several times, and every time I took him, somebody would always bring him something with Spider-Man on it. So he was loved by everybody that he met. He would make you laugh. He would do like crazy dances and have you laughing, or he would try to sing a song and mess up all the words. And it was just he was just so fun to be around.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

And what made him laugh?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Anything. He was goofy. Anything can make him laugh, honey. He was just, he's one of those people he rather laugh than be sad. So DCU said he would do something or say something to make you smile, just so he can feel better when he's around you.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I know you said he enjoyed basketball and being a big brother, but tell me a little bit more about some of his interests. What else did he enjoy doing?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Well, if it really didn't pertain to basketball or his music or being around his little brother, once he well, that was when he got like 13, 14, those was his top three interests. If he wasn't doing one of them three things, he was in his room playing his game.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

What kind of brother was he?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

He was an awesome big brother. When I tell you, when I had his little brother, well, when I first thought that I was pregnant, he looked at me, he said, Mama, no girl, no girls. And I kept telling you, oh, this is gonna be my girl. I'm gonna have a boy and a girl. I'm gonna have a boy and a girl. Well, he got his wish because it was a boy. And when he thought that it was a boy, baby, he did everything. When I came home from the hospital, he wanted to make bottles, he wanted to change his brother, he wanted to give him baths, he wanted to do everything for his little brother. Even when his little brother was like two and three, he would come get him by 7:30, 8 o'clock. Come on, let's go take a bath. And he would give him a bath, and then he'd tell him, Go get in my bed, and when you go to sleep, I'll put you in your bed. You know, he literally wanted to be with his baby brother all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

And what about when he got older? Was it the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 5:06

When he got older, he was more into his girlfriend. But he never put his brother on the back burner. You know, he was always still about his brother, but he was more we're focusing on his relationship. What kind of son was he? He was a good son. He really was. Uh, but when he got into high school and started hanging with certain friends, he wanted to start doing what they were doing. And I used to tell him, you can't do what they do because I'm not their mother. If I was, they wouldn't be doing it either. I'm like, so you can't do what they do because y'all don't have the same parents and y'all's parenting is different. Their mothers allow them to trust them to go out, hang out, and come home at a decent time. I can't do that with you because I don't trust people with your life. And he never understood what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah. Let's talk about the day everything changed. From your perspective, walk me through April 23rd.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

On April 23rd, I went to work like a normal day. And me and my sister that was staying with me, we had already planned that when we got off, we were gonna go down there to visit him and go see my mom and all of them. Well, I got off of work at five o'clock, went home, took my shower, got dressed, waited on my sister to get off and get home. When she made it, well, before she made it to the house, I got a phone call that they heard some shots fired over by the apartment where my son stayed. And the young lady was like, Would you like for me to go over there and make sure your son is okay? And I said, Yes, ma'am, please and thank you. What made her call you? She said that someone that stayed over there called her, is what she told me.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

And she's a good friend of mine. We mean her, we grew up together. Okay. She was like an auntie to him as to why she wanted to know if I wanted her to go check on him. When did you realize something was wrong? When my baby sister called me and she said, Keisha, he's gone. That was the hardest thing. The hardest thing that I ever wanted to hear about one of my kids. And the fact that I live miles away from them, it broke me because I wasn't able to be there. And then, you know, even with her, my siblings, my mom, his dead siblings being there, that still didn't give me the comfort because it was my job to be his protector. And I couldn't. I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I can understand how that would weigh on you, weigh on any parent, you know, and I can definitely fear your emotion right now. When you heard what happened to your son, what was your first reaction?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I broke, I hollered, and I screamed, and I asked God to please don't take my baby from me. I went through too much just to hell that chat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

One of the the people in this is his girlfriend. Can you tell me what you know about their relationship?

SPEAKER_02 8:08

They argued all the time, but he still loved her. He worked, she didn't. She just stayed at the apartment all day long where he worked and then going through his phone and their messages. That's how I felt that they was toxic. If I hadn't gone through his phone, I would have thought they was the perfect couple. And then the fact that he was telling me that her mom and her dad was threatening to do things to him.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

How recent before his death did he tell you that? Had they broken up at any point before his death?

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yes, they broke up all the time. And right before, like two weeks before it happened, they had broke up.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Can you talk a little bit about their dynamic?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah. She was a Caucasian girl. She was young. Well, she was 16 at the time. As much as I knew, you know, he had been staying with them for a while. He was homeless before that. Then he finally, once he started working, he got his own little apartment. Her family at the time, I thought they cared for him.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

And Rashar was 19, correct? Yes, ma'am. And so on the day you found out about what happened to your son, you you made it down, right? Well, I by the time I made it, they had already taken his body.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

So everybody just told me to come to my mom's house.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Did she come near the girlfriend?

SPEAKER_02 9:27

No, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

And did you communicate with her at all that day?

SPEAKER_02 9:30

I did. I asked her what happened, and she kept telling me that she would have to talk to me face to face, but she never did.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Did she ever give you an explanation of what happened?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

She tried to give me a story, but she still says she don't know what happened at the end of the story. She was like, but I don't know what happened. What story did she give you? She said that he went to the store, he came home, they argued, they made up, they ate pizza and watched the movie. My son smoked, and then he asked her to make him some tea. And next thing she knew, he was laying on the floor sharp.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

We communicated a little bit about the fact that she always said that they argued and made up. And that stood out to me because it was mentioned, you know, from her and all of this more than one time. What went through your mind or what goes through your mind when you think about how she kept emphasizing that they made up?

SPEAKER_02 10:26

She lied. The first thing my mom went on is that she did it.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

She said she really didn't provide you with an explanation, but she tried to give you some story. Did that story ever change?

SPEAKER_02 10:36

After the time when I talked to her, she didn't talk to me anymore. Every time I started asking questions, she kept saying, Nobody did it, nobody did it, and then she blocked me.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

I want to circle back again to the story that she gave you. You know, I've seen the crime scene and and what you've sent me, and we've talked through that a little bit, but she was in the kitchen making tea, and it's not a big kitchen area.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

No, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I've pulled the apartment complex, I've pulled the floor plant plan. It's a very small apartment, and the kitchen is even smaller.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

It's about as big as a hallway.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

And he was shot in the kitchen. And she's saying she didn't know what happened, and she would have been within arm's length of him?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Looking back today, what questions do you still have for the girlfriend?

SPEAKER_02 11:22

I got over, I got a little box of cards with over 101 questions. What are a couple of those questions? Who was in the house? Who did it is the number one question I really want to know. Why did your daddy go over there and jump on my son earlier that day?

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Tell me about that. Her father jumping on my shard. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

One of the neighbors told their their niece what had happened, and her niece contacted me to tell me. So I really don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Now, did she tell anybody this information? You know, what she knew or what she saw. Then did she see this or did she hear this fight that happened?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

She, from what the niece said, she saw them fighting. And she, when other people were standing out there watching it, she said that she went in or how because she was waiting for the police to come to talk to her. She said, and they never did. She said they never came and asked her anything about that day. And this is one of the neighbors who he played Dummy Nose with.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Okay. Do you know when that neighbor found out he had been shot?

SPEAKER_02 12:22

She said, she said later on that night, some of the neighbors had told her that he had got shot. And she was waiting for the police to come so she could tell them who did it.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Did you ever get a chance to talk to her and ask her why she didn't call on the tops herself? No, ma'am. She felt like the father had done it?

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

What made her feel like the father had done it? Was it the fight that preceded the shooting?

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Or that's what I'm that's what I took from it.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And I know there's been a live share that continues to bother you about Rashar's case. Can you tell the listeners about some of the concerns you have regarding Rashar's injuries?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Well, the first thing that really bothers me is how they ruled it a suicide, but the pictures doesn't show that. They're telling me that my son could use both hands. When I've raised this child all his life, and I know he was right-handed. And he used to get upset when we try to get him to use his left hand. And they try to make me believe that my son shot himself, threw the gun behind him, and laid down on his left hand. Because his right hand was bandaged. Because I'm right-handed. And I know it's hard for me to use my left hand to do anything. I could only time I can really use my left hand is to drive. And that's because when I drive with my right hand, I feel like I'm swerving. But when I drive with the left hand, I feel like I'm driving straight because it's not as strong as my right hand.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Right. You said looking at the photo, it doesn't look like a suicide. What are some of the immediate physical injuries from the photo that you just can't get out of your head? Because I've seen them too, and they're they're gruesome.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

It shoots themselves. It's gonna place their feet stacked on top of each other like that, perfectly up under no cabinet or anywhere else. However they body drop, that's just how they lay. And the fact that the gunshot wound is on the side of his neck, not right up under his neck, on the side of his neck. And then, like I said again, the fact that the hand they say he used is up under him, like he was going to hold his neck, not as if he just shot himself.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Why was his right hand bandaged at this time?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

It had a thick red bandage around it because he had broke his hand and he had it wrapped up. The neighbor is the one who wrapped it because he hurt his hand at work, and the neighbor's the one who wrapped it. So he couldn't even really open his hand or close it. It was just stuck, swollen and stuck.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

So they're saying he shot himself and then tucked himself properly after shooting his hands.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Right. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

We've talked a little bit about his teeth. And let me say this. I went back through some of his photos, the younger photos, um, photos from when he was doing his music and all of that. When I tell you, my boy was smiling all the time. His teeth were literally perfect.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yes, ma'am. Me and Medicaid paid good money for them teeth and look like he at first he had his two teeth, the two front teeth, they was kind of bucked a little bit, and he had a gap. And he did not like that because he thought he was a ladies' man, even when he was three and four. And he didn't like that. So when he got old enough, he kept saying, Mama, can I get braces? And I was like, you know what? Come on, we're gonna take you to the dentist to see. Well, he got them braces, and they made his teeth perfect. And that smile is what I missed so much.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

I want you to tell my listeners why his teeth are so significant in this case.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Because when the day that I got to see my son, my baby only had one tooth left. And on the report, they say his teeth was perfect and in good health. What teeth did you see, but they're one.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

And what did they say? Where where's his other 31 at?

SPEAKER_02 16:10

They told me they shattered. And you know all they know he could have been snagged tooth because something happened to where his teeth was not there. And the fact that you're telling me one thing and I'm seeing another, there's a lot somewhere, and I need to know the truth. And that's what bothers me the most.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, I can definitely understand that. And we've had previous conversations about the relevance of Snapchat in Rashad's case and the incident that happened. Can you tell us a little bit about the significance of Snapchat in this?

SPEAKER_02 16:41

After everything happened with my son, she didn't call 911. She never ran out the house for help. She went right on Snapchat and started contacting his friends and her friends and telling him she needs their help. And she said, Rich just got shot. And then his friend asked, Well, what did you do after it happened? She said I sat there and held him while his body whistled.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Okay, let's circle back. So, who called 911? The die across the street. Because he saw something or because he heard a shot.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

After a while, she ran outside to go. She he said that she came across the street to get his son, and he asked what was going on, and she said Rich just got shot. And he told her that his 13-year-old son was not coming over there for that. He would come check it out. And when he got over there and saw what was going on, saw my son on the floor, he called 911. She was pacing up and down the street.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So snapshot first contact she made after your son was shot.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yes, ma'am. And then she went out the house to go get a 13-year-old to come in instead of calling 911. What can a 13-year-old do? That's what I want to know. Because I have a 13-year-old here with me right now. And every time something happened, I tell them, don't call my child. You call the proper authority or you let one of the adults around know, do not call him for anything. She contacted people who couldn't do nothing about the situation instead of calling the proper authority. She came outside and she said, Rich just got shot. He went in and when he saw him on the ground on the floor bleeding out, he called 911.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

And are there other witnesses you believe should have been interviewed? And was this main interview by police?

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Nope, he said the same thing. He'd been waiting on them to talk to him. He said he went to the little festival that weekend. He saw them all at the festival and not one of them ever asked him anything about that day. All the neighbors in the report that they claim said they didn't see nothing or didn't hear no gunshots. How can you live that close to somebody and not hear a gunshot?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Have you been able to confirm or deny if officers actually spoke to any of those witnesses or any of those other neighbors over there?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I have to confirm that they really didn't because one of those ladies in their report is the one who told her niece the story. But they said they talked to her. She didn't hear nothing or see nothing. But she told her niece a whole different story and said she was waiting for them to come talk to her and they never did.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

What investigative steps do you believe were never taken?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

They did it all wrong. From the fact that my mother, my siblings, and his dad's siblings all was there. Soon as they got the call, they all made it there in a timely manner. They refused any of them to identify his body. They tried to make them leave and go to a church. Then they let the little girl come in the house while they was in there doing, supposed to be doing their job. They let her come step over his body, go in the room, get her duffel bag, and step back over his body and leave with her mother.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Wait, they didn't keep her there for questioning? No, ma'am. Or they didn't get her immediately down to the precinct?

SPEAKER_02 19:56

No, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

They allowed her to come in, step over his body, and grab possible evidence?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Yes, ma'am. With my mom and them standing there, and they asked them, why is she getting to go in? Why did she get to leave? And that's when they proceeded to ask my friend to take my mom and my sister and my sister-in-law all to a church so they can do their job.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

They just wouldn't let anybody have access to identify.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yes, ma'am, they said because it was a gruesome scene and they didn't want them to see that. And then the sheriff told my mom, well, you can look through the window. If you want to see that bad, you can look through the window.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

If you want to see that bad, you can look through the window. Is what the sheriff and the person in charge of investigating and collecting all essential evidence for this case is that's what he told your mother? If you want to see that bad about her grandson. Yes, ma'am. There was another comment he made that was extremely inappropriate in a time such as this. Can you tell me a little bit about that comment he made towards your mother?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Well, when we got down there, because they tried to deny me at first of seeing the pictures, and I kept telling them, I'm coming to see them crime scene photos. I haven't seen my son, I'm coming to see those pictures. When we get there, instead of him taking us to the back to show us what we need to see or stand on focus on what we're doing, he, oh, that's what that sexy black woman I've been looking for.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

To your mother.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

When you guys trying to get an understanding and trying to find out what's going on and how it happened and who's involved, he's flirting.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Right. And then to tell me, well, I didn't want you to see the pictures because you're gonna have nightmares. I'll have them a million times more. I wanted to see my child. And then to tell us if we're gonna come watch the if we're gonna come see the pictures, we need to be able to contain ourselves. No hollering or any of that. How can you tell a grieving family that they can't holler or cry when they see those pictures? Did investigators ever sit down and answer your questions? No ma'am never would talk to me. Every time I call, they're always either in court, they're off, or they're busy. Then he proceeds to tell me, well, you do have to understand he was in the house with an underage Caucasian girl. So does that mean that it's it gotta be suicide because of that?

SPEAKER_00 22:19

I want to talk a little bit about that too, because you know that's why I built my entire platform. It's because in our community, black, brown, indigenous, we get the least amount of investigating when it comes to crime and the victims of our community. We don't get the same media coverage. We don't get the same investigation. Our cases don't get the same care or concern or even urgency that other cases do. What do you think the relevancy of Rashad being black and with this girl, this Caucasian girl is in his case?

SPEAKER_02 22:52

It's because he was black, born in a predominantly white part of the town. And for two, they're trying to make it seem like because the age difference. So therefore, he don't get, he's not relevant to them because of those two things. They knew the family is what it brought down to, and that's why they treated him so inhumane.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

So her dad is deceased now as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yes, ma'am. He got killed that December, the same year my son, December 2022.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Why do you feel like this case was not investigated thoroughly before it was ruled a suicide?

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Because they closed his case two days later and they put him in that body bag face down, like he was laying. They just picked him up, dropped him in the body bag, zipped it up, and drove off with him. His funeral hall was overbooked. That's the story he gave me. Well, that's the story the sheriff told me. And that the funeral hall was overbooked, so they took him to a holding cell and held him in there until the crime left to come get him. And it was cool in there, so his body wouldn't, what he said, wouldn't it do something to his body? The man said so much hocus pocus, it just irritated me. But to take it to a a holding cell and let him stay in a holding cell overnight in a body bag face down, it's disgusting. Very disgusting. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Because even on the day after they had, well, you know, it took us two weeks to even get his body anyway, because they had to reconstruct his face. So I got his body and I started asking questions about bruises on his face that it was never mentioned to me. That's normal. That's normal. Bodies do that. And I asked them, do y'all think I'm dumb or stupid? I know better. I seen that like they don't bruise like that. Because my baby had a black eye for sure. His nose had a big bruise across it. He had a gash on his forehead and one tooth in his mouth. And on the very first picture I seen of my child the night I made it to try to talk to the funeral home, and they showed me this picture of my son. My baby's face was well, like somebody was still toad boots, had kicked him in his face.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

What else do you want the listeners to know, Marquisha, about this investigation or lack of an investigation?

SPEAKER_02 25:13

I I really don't even know.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

You've been holding a lot and you've been carrying a lot, and I understand how this still feels so unsolved for you. Um let's take the investigation out of it for just a minute. What is grieving, Rashad, look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 25:27

I really became a hermit. They took my joy, my smile. They took me away from me. Because when people see see that boy, they automatically knew he belonged to me. Because he looked just like me. And they took it all away from me. I don't want to be around people. If I go somewhere, most of the time I sit in the car because when I get around people, my anxiety gets going. I get nervous. I start shaking. I don't trust nobody to the point that I don't even trust my own family. And I love them, but I don't trust them until I know who hurt my child. I can't trust nobody. And it causes me to be more strict and harder on my youngest son, who just wants to be a typical teenager. He wants to play sports. I didn't want him to play sports. I literally cried the first year when he started school up here. I cried every single day because I didn't want him to go to school because I don't know who did what. I don't it just it just took my life. I've been confined to all these different anxiety and depression medicines because I don't know when I may or may not snap on somebody. That's the hardest part about waking up every day with shy. I don't want to wake up. If I could lay in my bed asleep all day, I would be just there. Can't sit in my living room because I got all his pictures in there. And every time I see his pictures, there's gonna memories and the thoughts. But I refuse to take them down because that's my job. I mix them calling me. People they'll never they'll never understand it.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

They won't. They won't understand them. We hear the word justice a lot and we throw that word around, but what does justice actually look like to you, Martisha?

SPEAKER_02 27:07

He's holding the people accountable for what they did, including the crime lab, the police department, the coroner, the girl, because she knows more than she's telling. I want them all held accountable because had they used a better judgment, had she just stayed away, he would still be here.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

If investigators are listening right now, what do you want them to hear?

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Do your job. Stop sweeping stuff under the rugs. Every life matters, no matter what. We all are somebody's child, somebody's sibling, somebody's parent, somebody's niece, nephew, and cousin. Do your job. Don't know one life, don't make it like one life is better than the next.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Treat everybody equally because karma will strike.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Just speak up. Don't make people feel like it's okay to take people's kids right. And you sit there and you know something, tell it. You're not people gonna call you a snitch regardless. But you can also help somebody. The grieving may not go away. The pain is never gonna go away. But just having the legit answers that we need, that can help so much. Then to let us keep going without it.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

And I hear the raw emotion in your voice. As a mother in your heart, what do you feel like happened to Rashad?

SPEAKER_02 28:31

I feel like they got into it. I feel like she called her daddy, possibly her uncle. I feel like they came to her defense and she stood by and watched them do, watched them kill my son. I will feel like she watched them jump on my son and kill it. And I've never changed that. I will never change that. Because they're saying a mother knows I'm always known when something was wrong with my kid. And I know she knows more. And if it wasn't her daddy, her uncle and her daddy, it was her mama and her daddy. It's too many cover-up. And she's the main ingredient.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Before we wrap up, Markesha, is there anything that I didn't ask today that you think people need to hear or people need to know?

SPEAKER_02 29:10

No, babe, I think you pretty much asked everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Listening to Markeisha, I couldn't help but think about something she said. For her, this isn't just a case. This is her son. And while investigators may end, a mother's grief doesn't. As I reviewed the investigative file, there were several details that stood out to me. Details that made me stop, go back, and read the page again. Rather than interrupt Marquisha's story with my own observations, I wanted this episode to be about her voice, her experience, and the son she loves so deeply. In the coming weeks, I'll be launching my YouTube After Show, Black Brown and Unstoff the Reality, where I'll take a deeper look at this case, discuss the investigative file, and walk through the questions that stood out to me as I reviewed the available records. Before publishing this episode, I did reach out to the Sheriff's Department responsible for investigating this case, and I did offer them the opportunity to answer questions and provide comment. At the time of this recording, I have not received a response. If that changes, I'll make sure to share it with you. Whether you walk away from today's episode agreeing with the official findings or understanding why this family continues to ask questions, I hope one thing is certain that Richard Walker is remembered not simply for the way he died, but for the life he lived, for the son he was, for the brother he was, and for the people who still love him. If this episode reminded you of someone you love, call them, check on them, tell them you love them. Those words matter. This is Black Brennan Unsolved. I'm your host, Amory, and I'll see you next Wednesday.