Mother of Eight Shot and Killed in Atlanta
Stephanie Seabrum, whose kids range in age from 2 to 19, was shot in back.
Oct. 2, 2008 — -- It was the phone call that is every mother's nightmare.
At four in the morning Saturday, a medical examiner told Sharon Seabrum that her first-born child, 36-year-old Stephanie Seabrum, had been killed outside a check-cashing store in southwest Atlanta just a few hours earlier.
"I don't even want to answer the phone anymore," Seabrum told ABCNews.com. "She was a pure and beautiful angel -- a good mom, a good daughter -- and somebody destroyed that."
On that fateful night, Seabrum and boyfriend Gregory Parks were cashing some checks after midnight in order to pay bills due the following day, said Detective Nicole Redlinger.
"He waited in the car and she got out to cash her check and when she came out, she was ambushed by one to two males who pointed a gun at her," she explained. "They shot her in the back as she ran away and she died right away."
The murder was witnessed by Parks, who is not considered a suspect, according to Atlanta police. "He saw in his rearview mirror the guys approach her and he got out but it was too late. It all happened so fast."
Parks told WSB-TV: "After I heard the shot, they started running around, you know, running this way, getting ready to bend the corner so I started running behind them. But when I got around the corner, I didn't see anybody."
The assailants, who ran off with the gun and some of Seabrum's belongings, remain at large but they were captured on surveillance video, said Redlinger. Their faces are not clearly seen in the images.
"It appears to be stranger to stranger -- she was an innocent victim -- and we're trying to match the suspects to other robbery suspects," said Redlinger.
Now Seabrum, in between making preparations for a viewing of her body Friday and the funeral Saturday, is responsible for taking care of five of her daughter's eight children.
Stephanie Seabrum's oldest child, Monquavis, a freshman at Stillman College in Alabama, is returning home for his mother's funeral, said the elder Seabrum.
The victim's mother explained that her daughter had been through some tough times and was getting her life back together after attending dental college.
"She had trouble and she went through her own thing, but that's between her and God, not between me and you."
She added that her daughter enjoyed going to church, seeing movies, going to Six Flags amusement park, shopping and … shopping.
"Somebody destroyed a beautiful person, and now a whole lot of people have achy-breaking hearts."