Mom in Landfill Linked to Kids Found in Canal

March 5, 2011— -- Florida police have connected the two children whose bodies were found in suitcases floating in a canal to the body of a woman that was found last summer in a landfill.

Delray, Fla., police said Friday evening that they had identified the two children as 10-year-old Jermaine McNeil and his 6-year-old sister Ju'tyra Allen.

The boy was identified by the medical examiner, and while the girl's identity was not confirmed by the ME, police said her features were similar to the boy's, Delray Police Department Sgt. Nicole Guerriero said.

"This is our belief," Guerriero said. "However, the medical examiner wasn't able to confirm with scientific proof.

"The medical examiner has been able to positively identify the male child as 10-year-old Jermaine McNeal," she said. "He was identified through dental records."

Ever since the bodies of the two children were found Wednesday in the C-15 canal, police had been working to identify them and discover who their parents were.

Now police said they believe that a body discovered on Aug. 16 at the Solid Waste Authority processing plant in West Palm Beach was their mother, 25-year-old Felicia Brown, according to ABC affiliate WPBF-TV in Palm Beach.

Guerriero said the Delray Beach Police Department made the connection and that neither the medical examiner nor West Palm Beach police could confirm the identity of the woman.

Brown and her children had been living with a man named Clem Beauchamp, whom she had been dating since 2007, friends and relatives of the woman said.

Beauchamp, 34, is considered a suspect in the deaths but has not been charged, Guerriero said. She said he is being held on an unrelated weapons charge.

Kenneth Marshall, a neighbor of Brown and her children, told ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami that the woman had not been seen for about eight months. He said Beauchamp told anyone who asked about her that Brown had been arrested.

"He said she was in jail," Marshall said. "That's what he kept telling us, that she was in jail."

He described Beauchamp as "a very good father."

"I mean he threw the ball at his kids and did everything he had to do," Marshall said.

But he said the man had seemed to undergo a change recently.

"The last days that we saw him, he was very distraught," Marshall said. "He was going to the church and praying. He cut his hair."

Brown's grandmother, Barbara Flint, told ABC News affiliate WPLG that she confronted Beauchamp on Tuesday, the day before the bodies were found.

"He was here sitting on my sofa. I am asking him, 'Where are the children? Clem, tell me, where are my grandchildren?' And he knew all the time that he murdered them," Flint said.

"Two little innocent children," Flint said. "He could have brought them to me. I would have taken my grandchildren."

"She loved her kids," Brown's cousin Tanicsha Lowery told WPLG. "She never would have left her kids. She wouldn't."

Even before police identified the children and their mother, Brown's family members said they suspected the truth.

Margaret Gissome, Brown's sister, told ABCNews.com Friday she believed the missing woman was Brown and the dead children were her niece and nephew.

Gissome said police asked her to provide dental records for the children and pictures of her sister's tattoos.

"That's confirming in my mind you got my niece and nephew back there and you all need dentist records to point it out to the public," she said. "And now you're asking about tattoos [on] my sister and ... Yes we're going to read between the lines that you got my sister back there."

Gissome said the family didn't know how long Brown had been missing.

"We never knew she was missing until the community of Delray tipped off Delray police that they discovered the bodies," Gissome said.

Neighbors told Gissome that the kids were seen three weeks ago jumping on a trampoline in the neighborhood.

Gissome said Beauchamp had dated her sister since at least 2007. Brown and her two children were living with Beauchamp, Gissome said. Two of Beauchamp's children also lived in the home, Gissome said. It's not clear where those two children are at the moment.

"I've known situations where Clem hit my sister," Gissome said.

Police have searched the Delray home where Beauchamp and Brown with her two children and two children of Beauchamp's.

Where Is Mother of Children Found in Canal?

On Wednesday, authorities discovered a black duffel bag floating in a canal. The bag contained the body of a black girl between the ages of 6 and 10.

Later Wednesday afternoon, police discovered another suitcase about a half mile away from where the girl was discovered. In the black suitcase with a soft outer shell, authorities discovered the body of a black boy between the ages of 10 and 12, Guerriero said.

The bodies were not dismembered and investigators have not yet said if they had determined a cause of death.

Beauchamp, a convicted felon, voluntarily visited police Thursday morning and after a day of questioning was charged with illegally possessing a homemade firearm silencer.

The charges stem from 2009 incident when a car belonging to Brown was repossessed. In the car, police found a black bag that contained a firearm, a homemade silencer, a black knit cap, a green Halloween type mask, ammunition and a tube containing crack cocaine, according to an affidavit.

When asked about the weapon, mask and gun, Brown said they belonged to Beauchamp. When questioned in 2009, Beauchamp denied that the gun and silencer belonged to him. He said that he had bought the green mask for his son.

Beauchamp admitted to having a felony conviction for aggravated assault stemming from an arrest for robbery while masked, according to the affidavit.