Mom, step-dad open up about daughter's tragic murder by her own father

[Music] fight song seemed to be Cayden Mancuso's personal anthem everyone thinks that their kids the most amazing person on the planet but this little girl was was different she was special everyone wanted to be her best friend but at seven years old that bright light faded her vibrant life cut short in a flash I still don't feel like it's real I still feel like I'm gonna wake up and this awful nightmare and I just but I know that I'm not that nightmare an unimaginable murder in the wake of a raging custody battle Kayden killed by her own biological father Jeffrey man coos OH in a murder-suicide now just one month after her murder Kayden's mom and stepdad Kathy and Bryan Sherlock speaking out against a family court system they say failed Caden by not properly taking into account Jeffrey's violent history and what Kathy says were her repeated cries for help do you feel like your daughter's death was preventable absolutely oh my god by every single thing that could have stopped it at some point it just didn't with three beautiful kids and a new puppy the Sherlock's thought life couldn't get any better but there was somebody else in the picture cadance biological father Jeffrey man coos OH whom Kathy met one summer on the Jersey Shore it was a fling yeah basically they never married but they moved in together when Kathy found out she was pregnant I thought that that's what I had to do to try for Kayden to give her to parents despite the chill between mom and dad Jeffrey's sister Alison says the father-daughter bond was strong she would always say how you know she loved him my brother his five foot six and you know she would say things like my dad is so tall yeah she just thought he was so tall and so strong Kayden was one of the only bright spots in his life which his sister says was troubled since childhood she's made worse she says by drinking self-medicating and violent outbursts as function teachers getting hit in the head with a pool stick he had like 17 staples in his head or something like that how much did he drink if I would go out to have a beer with him and I would be on my second beer he'd be on his thirteenth beer it was that kind of drinking you know between the drinking and it's that you know he suffered from some brain damage which caused him to progressively get mentally ill Cathy soon discovered that Kayden's dad had a violent streak and a criminal record including multiple assault charges across several states and he had actually strangled me I mean I remember the only time I've ever felt like I was gonna die was in the clutches of his arms five years ago the final straw Jeffrey was charged with assault after yet another bar fight this time he bit off part of the man's ear I left like literally packed up my house and a u-haul on him one day so forget the hell out of her at this point Cathy says despite fearing for her own safety she never imagined Jeffery would physically harm their precious daughter so she established an informal custody schedule with Jeffery while he gave her money for child support he was loving towards her I mean they did a lot of things that's probably the only good thing he had in her like his life as Jeffrey's life seemed to be unraveling Cathy was moving on she fell in love with Bryan slowly created family through this marriage of Kevin Bryant it was almost like he loved it first like with that little girl you fell hard not just for Cathy but yeah it was definitely two years ago Jeffrey made a surprising move suing Cathy for partial custody of Kaden Jeffery represented himself in court in front of Judge Jeffrey trogir and the Sherlock's a he went on the attack Jeff is attacking Cathy with all these accusations and it wasn't procedure and so what was judge Chagas attitude in your view he was just like I love it they say Jeffrey lashed out at Cathy outside of court to calling the police on her over and over again he even they say grew violent towards his own mother in front of Kaden and what did she tell you about what she physically witnessed that Daddy was pushing my mom she called her on the and pretending to go like this to her and grandma was crying for the first time Allison says that Caden admitted to being afraid of her dad we did ask her after that incident did you think that he was gonna hurt you and she said yes a little over a year into the custody battle Kayden's now desperate mom filed a restraining order but her lawyer never filed a long-term one for Kaden I tried everything the police were like well he's not hurting you Cathy gathered witnesses for her custody case including Kayden's teacher principal and soccer coach chad smith who witnessed a confrontation between Kaden's two dads after jeffrey brought Kayden late to her final game I sat there and watched Jeff get up in Brian's face and he was clearly it looked like he was trying to provoke him into a fight the switch went off in my mind that he needed professional help he never had any character witnesses testify on but his behalf you know not one person in his family could go in front of a judge and swear on the Bible and say he's a great father he would never hurt his child in the face of mounting evidence against Jeffrey and calls for intervention Cathy feels as if judge trogir still didn't take her seriously he thought that I was just you know crazy mom a crazy mom and he ordered me a mental-health evaluation so at the end of that case it's on the 28th he's like I think you both need help like I think you both need therapy and Cathy was deemed by the psychiatric evaluator to have anxiety but Jeffrey was diagnosed with major depressive disorder moderate with anxious disorder and identified with narcissistic and antisocial personality traits they also said he had no remorse and he had absolutely no responsibility for any of his actions a custody evaluator recommended that Jeffrey's visits be unsupervised only if he received mental health treatment but while the judge advised Jeffrey to get help he awarded him unsupervised visits with no mandatory mental health treatment there are some who might wonder well why follow these court orders if you feel like your daughter's in that grave danger there was times when I just said my biggest mistake is I said I've just gone to content or JLo and Cathy says the judge's decision would have deadly consequences just one month ago Bryan discovered the unimaginable got to where the steps were like what stays with me is what her last moments were and I wish you tried know what he did the big story on Exodus tonight is the unfolding investigation into an apparent murder-suicide was a gut-wrenching outpouring of grief tonight Katie's death rocked the community with family and friends asking why the judge allowed Jeffrey unsupervised visits despite his criminal past and mental instability just taking one person to listen to me to do something he should have put visits supervised even if they were with another family member until he could be truly evaluated helped put on medicine committed whatever needed to be done an online petition calling for the removal of judge trogir quickly gained popularity with over forty thousand signatures and yet Frank serve own of Support Center for child advocates says Family Court is fraught with contentious claims and judges are often confined by the law it's not uncommon for a parent with a criminal history including crimes of violence to be awarded unsupervised custody when you think of the numbers of persons in this country who have criminal records including for violent behavior we would have lots more kids in foster care and lots more kids not seeing their parent Caitlin's family believes the system needs to change this week they'll meet with the governor's office to push forward Kayden's law you protected his rights versus hers essentially his right to be a parent was more so important than her right to essentially live in a statement judge trotters office says court records do not support the Sherlock's comments about the judicial proceedings or presiding judge adding that he strongly encouraged both parents to seek help not just for their own personal benefits but for kayden's to the fact that I'm never gonna see her again I hate it I hate it I don't know how to go on I'm I don't have one match but I can make an explosion this is it's your mother's hope that Kayden's death like her beloved fight song will have an impact it says in the fight song I may be only one match but I caused an explosion hopefully she calls in it and some sort of explosion that this doesn't happen to someone else [Music] hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News youtube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 6,146,548

Keywords: Philadelphia, Kathy, Sherlock, Brian, Jeffrey, Mancuso, Kayden, daughters, tragic, murder, by, her, own, father, bitter, custody, battle, family, issues, crime, us, abc, abcnews

Id: zHEQuVqLbGw

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 06 2018