'She was my baby, my girl'


EVAN E. PARKER | THE TIMES Ricky Gray, center, is comforted Thursday by stepdaughter Melissa Estrada, left, and daughter Rebecca Gray while remembering his eldest daughter, Jamie Gray, who was murdered Wednesday night outside her Valparaiso apartment. Ricky Gray said Jamie Gray, 29, had been planning to attend college to make a better life for herself and her two children.

CENTER TOWNSHIP | Ricky Gray sobbed and clung tightly to his youngest daughter.

The young girl did not fully understand what was going on and was weak with the flu, but she comforted her father Thursday morning in a way few others could.

Just hours before, Gray learned his eldest daughter, 29-year-old Jamie Gray, was stabbed to death outside her Valparaiso apartment.

"She was a beautiful person," he said. "She was my baby, my girl."

Ricky Gray's wife, Mary, who is due to deliver a child late next month, said she was having difficulty processing the news.

"It seems like a nightmare," she said from the family's home at the north end of Flint Lake. "You want to wake up, but you can't."

Jamie Gray's mother, Deni Weber, who lives a short distance away in Liberty Township, did not want to comment about the slaying.

Ricky Gray, who works as a motor inspector at Ispat Inland Inc. in East Chicago, said he last saw his daughter Tuesday evening when she stopped by to borrow money for cigarettes. He said he gave her a little extra money and was happy she was getting her life back on track after having medical problems and other difficulties.

Jamie Gray began working at the local Kmart within the past week.

"She just wanted to go back to school to make a better life for herself and her children," he said.

Ricky Gray was unsure what his daughter had intended to study, but said she enjoyed journalism and was an honor roll student years ago at Washington Township High School.

School counselor Diane Warren had no problem remembering Jamie Gray as a good student and gifted writer who was encouraged to go on to college.

"She was very bright," Warren said.

A picture of Jamie Gray as an adult, with her two young children, hangs in the living room of her father's home.

As family and friends slowly began to arrive to offer support, Mary Gray said Jamie Gray was more a friend to her than a stepdaughter. The two had much in common, she said, including a birthday, July 7, and a love of unicorn and angel knickknacks.

"Jamie had a good sense of humor, a very loving heart," she said.