True-life
A little girl vanished from bed in the middle of the night
EDITOR’S WARNING
YOU’RE THE JUDGE!
Breasia Terrell, 10, and her half-brother, then 8, were attached at the hip.
The pair of them were best pals, living together with their mother Aishia Lankford in Davenport, Iowa.
Breasia’s father had passed away.
And her younger brother – identified later in court as DL – rarely saw his dad, Henry Dinkins.
Until the summer of 2020, when Aishia bumped into Henry while she was out.
She thought it’d be nice if Henry spent some time with DL and tried to forge a bond with his son.
Henry agreed, invited DL round for a sleepover.
Only, the little lad didn’t know his father well.
So when Henry arrived to collect him as arranged on 9 July 2020, DL asked if his big sister Breasia could tag along too – they rarely went anywhere without each other.
Breasia was keen to go with her brother.
Aishia was at work, but their grandmother made the arrangements.
Breasia and DL both went to spend the night at the flat Henry shared with his girlfriend Andrea.
Then, at 6.30pm, when Aishia finished work, she drove over to drop off the kids’ pyjamas.
Breasia ran out of the block of flats smiling – chatted to her mum and cuddled the family dog.
Then disappeared back inside with the bag of clothes, her hair bouncing on her shoulders as she ran.
Later, she sent her mum a text saying she was heading to bed.
Goodnight Mummy, I love you, she wrote.
It was between 9pm and 10pm at that point.
There was only one bed in the flat, and Breasia was the first to fall asleep.
A short time later, DL joined her.
Alarming message
Morning came and at 8.08am DL sent Aishia an alarming text message.
He told his mum he’d just woken up and Breasia was nowhere to be seen.
Aishia left work, jumped in the car and sped to Henry’s home.
Once DL was safely in her car, she confronted her ex.
Police had been called and the altercation was caught on their bodycams.
‘You lost her,’ Aishia screamed. ‘You weren’t watching her, Henry.’
The information he’d given officers was vague and sketchy.
He said Breasia had last been seen early that morning, wearing a white T-shirt, shorts and white or pink flip-flops.
Something didn’t sit right with officers.
A huge search was launched, but they’d already got their suspicions about Henry Dinkins.
It didn’t take long to discover that he was a registered sex offender.
In 1990, aged 17, he’d been
