Faheem Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In March of 2002, Melinda Williams asked her cousin to take care of her three children while she served a jail sentence. This would be the last time she would see her son Faheem alive. Faheem Williams came into the world on June 13, 1995 at University Hospital in Newark a few minutes before his twin brother Raheem. Seven years later he was starved, beaten and concealed in a filthy basement in which his surviving twin and his four year old brother Tyrone were also imprisoned. Raheem and Tyrone were found starving, dressed in clothes soaked in urine and feces in a locked room adjacent to where Faheem mummified corpse was found.

 

On January 4, 2003, Sherry Murphey's boyfriend went down to the basement to his boots. The door was lock so he broke it down and found two small children hiding under a filthy bed Police were called in and the children were taken to the hospital. While at the hospital, Raheem told the police he had a twin brother named Faheem who he had not seen a long time. On January 5, 2003, police went to the home again, this time bring a cadaver sniffing dog. In a closet, stuffed in a plastic storage container, were the remains of Faheem Williams. An autopsy revealed Faheerm died from starvation and blunt force to the stomach.

 

Wesley Murphy said that Faheem "missed the bed and hit the floor." He was not sure whether Faheem was still conscious after he fell. "I was in shock. I ran out of the house." Sherry Murphy said she found Faheem, wrapped him in a blanket and left him on a bed for three days before loading his body into a purple storage bin. Several weeks later, she and her children, along with Faheem's twin brother, Raheem, and younger half-brother, Tyrone Hill, moved to a house in Newark, where she placed the bin in a dank area of the basement. She locked Raheem and Tyrone in another room in the cold basement, forcing them to sleep on a filthy mattress and use a bucket as a toilet.

 

Murphy's son, Wesley, admitted performing a wrestling move on Faheem that included forcefully driving his knee into the child's abdomen and led to his death. He pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter and was sentenced to three years in prison. He has since served his time. Sherry Murphy was sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in prison for her treatment of the surviving children. A charge of attempted murder was dropped in a plea deal in which she admitted hiding Faheem's body. Melinda Williams was never charged with mistreating her children. However, records show she repeatedly ignored agreements with DYFS to improve her parenting. The surviving boys also told caseworkers that Williams abused them by burning them with cigarettes.

 

Age: 8 Years

Location: New Jersey

 Suspect in death: Sherry Murphy, Mother's Cousin and Wesley Murphy, Sherry's son