Teddy was murdered in Amarillo, TX, at the Clements Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, on October 21, 2006, around 4:20 a.m. At first they said he died at 10:40, but the coroners report says 8:40. That means he was dead and alone for 2 hours!

Where were the gaurds and the nurses??????

...coverup...

The coroner's report stated there was no outside intervention, meaning there were no attempts to revive him. The mortition said they have never seen anything like it.

The prison also got caught falsifying documents related to Teddy's murder.

My son was serving a 15 year sentence for a shooting death that occurred in 1995, when he was 17. It was ruled crime of passion. He only had a few more years left. They would not parole him, and he suffered much. He was having problems with the guards, and 6 years earlier he had left a gang that he joined for protection when he first entered prison and was very young and scared.

I was working graveyard shift at the Waffle House restaurant when I got a call from the prison Chaplin, who told me that they found him unconscious at 10:40 the previous evening, AND ATTEMPS TO REVIVE WERE UNSUCESSFUL!

I was offered a burial at the Huntsville prison cemetery, and in his next breath after breaking this news to me, he asked if I wanted to claim my son’s body.

I kept asking, “What happened? How did he die?

The Chaplin told me I’d have to wait until Monday for more information.

I continued to demand answers to my questions about my son’s death. The Chaplin said that my son had committed suicide at 10:40 on October 20, but agreed to find out how he’d died.

The Chaplin did call back, and told me that suicide was the reason, but he did not know how.

I called back a few hours later, on the morning of October 21, 2006 and a woman answered and said, “Yes, they said you would be calling.”

I began to ask questions. She insisted that she had no information, and that I would have to wait until Monday to speak with the Warden’s office. I insisted that I be permitted to speak with someone in charge.

She put me through to a supervisor. The supervisor was not very helpful – in fact, he was rude and hateful - but I persisted with my questions.

He told me that Teddy was put in Crisis Unit, on 15 minute watch, but stated that in spite of that, Teddy had hung himself with a blanket.

I said, “No cameras?”

He said “No. Our budget doesn’t allow for cameras”, and further stated that my son was “a ward of the state, and had no rights.”

He spoke very hateful to me and was cold-hearted.

I could not get any more information until Monday, from the Warden’s office. They were apparently the only ones authorized to give me information, and they are not there during weekends.

Monday morning, October 23, I called Wardens office.

The Assistant Warden at first said, “Yes, definitely, suicide. He hung himself. The inmate took a razor and scratched himself on the stomach and arm, and was moved to Crisis Management under Suicide Watch. He was there for about 3 days.”

I asked, “How did he get it?” I persisted with many questions, and then I said, “So, you mean to tell me that in 15 minutes he killed himself, and could not be revived???”

Then, he stated, Well, it could have been an hour or 2” ????? The Assistant Warden seemed flustered.

Then I was put on hold. He came back after some time and said that I would have to wait to speak with Warden, himself, and that “unfortunately, he stepped out and will not be back for few hours”, and he would call me back.

I insisted “When?????”

The Warden called me back a few hours later, on October 23, with “the nail clipper story” - that my son had scratched on his arm and stomach while in his Administrative Segregation cell, and that an employee had seen it, and so Teddy was moved to a Crisis Management cell, where after 3 days he took nail clippers, ( again nail clippers in the second cell?), and cut a strip of his suicide blanket, pushed it in the light grid above the toilet, hung himself and could not be revived

ALL IN 15 MINUTES???

I also asked about Teddy’s commissary and inmate trust fund. He had just bought $57.00 worth of commissary 5 days prior; toiletries, shampoo, candy, etc.

On the same Monday morning, October 23, my fiancée, Bob was trying to track down where my son was.

THEY LOST HIM? They said they did not know where he was.

Eventually, Bob found him at the Fort Worth Coroners Office, and the autopsy was already completed.

I believe that they stalled us the whole weekend, while they smuggled his body off for a rushed autopsy, so we could not get a private one.

COVER UP!

When we took Teddy’s burial suit to the funeral home I saw him for the first time in 2 years. I was in shock.

He looked like an old man.

He was starved down to 138 pounds.

He was a big boy, 6 feet tall.

The first thing I saw was the top of his head bashed in.

Then, I saw bruising resembling strap marks across both of his hands.

There was yet more bruising on side of head, his ears, etc.

After the memorial service, my fiancé, bob and my son’s father went in the back room with the mortician, and they removed his frail body from the coffin and undressed him

They took over 25 photos and a video.

His body was beaten and stabbed. There are 2 sets of strangulation marks on his neck, one up high, resembling a rope or cord, and down further a wider one that looks like the blanket story.

The bend of his arm was duct taped and shrink wrapped. The mortician removed the bandage which he put there because he was afraid the embalming fluid would leak out.

There was a big, round black hole like a stab wound about the size of a quarter – a very deep wound.

My son was going to be cremated for financial reasons, but he lay in the funeral home storage for almost 5 ½ months. The judge would not give permits to cremate him, so the funeral home gave us a coffin and burial plot. He was finally buried on March 13, 2006. He is in the Rose Lawn Cemetery in Seagoville Texas, east Dallas area.

On way to the funeral home, a representative from the Inspector General’s office called. He said, “Yes, I saw him. It was a suicide.”

Bob asked, ‘What about the hematoma on his head?”

He stated, “Well, maybe they dropped him taking him down”

We called FBI, and they mentioned a picture that was sent to him, and we asked what it looked like. The agent said that it was of Teddy, lying with a blanket covering him to his neck. We told them we didn't know anything about it, and hadn't seen it. We tried to get them to do a thorough investigation, but they closed the case without much investigation at all.

… I KNOW MY SON WAS MURDERED!

And, I do have them on a negligent homicide case.

The Office of the Inspector General has been doing an investigation. So far, they have uncovered that there were 3 officers on duty that night, and 2 of them were responsible for making 15 minute security checks on all crises mgt cells. They failed to do so, and falsified documents stating they did. The sergeant was informed, and he also tried to cover up their negligence, and failed to notify the Office of the Inspector General.

Everything happened so fast and unexpectedly ... for 4 days I stayed on the phone constantly ... I lost my voice and was suffering from exhaustion ... both cell phones were constantly busy, finally my fiancée, Bob forwarded my calls to just his phone. Our cell phone bill that month was over $400.00.

It was awful, and traumatic ... a death in the family is a tradgedy itself, but when it happens to a prisoner, it is way worse ... you are helpless ... you do not have the same rights, and there are behind-the-scenes forces trying the keep you in the dark ...

I might not ever the know the whole truth ...

Me and Theodore John Schmerber, (Teddy)
Born in St. Louis, MO, July 18 1977 when I was 17 years old

Teddy, his dad Ted, and me

The mandatory "birthday suit" baby photo

Teddy's Christining

Baby Teddy

Me and baby Teddy

Teddy loved taking baths

Teddy at K-Mart, getting his picture taken

Teddy's Kindergarten school picture

Teddy, his stepfather and me after we moved to Texas

Teddy, his stepfather, and his new little brother, Melvin Kelly

Teddy's nephew, Jerimiah Theodore Daniels

Teddy's nephew, Micah Daniels

Teddy's neice, Allison Daniels
He so longed to hold his nephews and his neice

A scared Teddy, right after he "caught the chain", at age 18

SOME OF TEDDY'S ARTWORK

Teddy's Jesus

Peacock

Teddy with the mortician, at the funeral home
after the funeral, when we removed him from the coffin to see
the rest of the damage they thought I'd never see

The big hole in his arm

Freshly sutured gash in the top of his head

Defensive wounds on his hand

His badly-injured neck

Teddy is not peaceful in the coffin ...
...he's half gone old before his time...
...and is wanting everyone to recognize his unjustice...
...and wants the truth be known
...I go over it in my mind daily...different senerios...
...and I can almost imagine, and feel his fear...

The first time I saw his body. I was in shock

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