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Neighbors say they wish they had investigated further when the mother of four children hadn't been seen in days.
By ANGELA MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2000
TAMPA -- Children played, laughed and talked about usual topics like football, friends and school at the Riverview Terrace public housing complex Sunday afternoon.
They also talked about death.
They knew that their neighbor, 29-year-old Aletha Hernandez, was found dead Saturday at her home at 107 E Kirby St. They knew that their playmates, Hernandez's four little girls ranging in age from 2 to 7, had survived on their own in the house for at least two days with their mother's body.
"The oldest one told me that their mama wasn't feeling good, that she was asleep," said 10-year-old James Stanley. "They were eating nothing but cold hot dogs, so I gave them a toaster pizza one night."
Other neighbors noticed that the normally doting mother was suddenly absent. The girls -- 2-year-old twins, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old -- looked unkempt and played in the dirt by themselves. School started back Wednesday, but the older two hadn't gone back to Cleveland Elementary School, said family friend Thelma Russell, a teacher at the school.
Neighbor Maxine Taylor said that, in retrospect, she should have realized something was wrong. She should have checked on things, she said Sunday.
"It didn't dawn on me, even with the children playing out here with their hair like that," Taylor said. "She would've never let them look like that, with their hair all nappy. They were always well-groomed."
Saturday, Taylor said, a coworker from the Sam's Club where Hernandez worked as a cashier stopped by to see why the single mother hadn't showed up for work in days and hadn't called. A few minutes later, Taylor saw the noticeably upset woman pacing in front of the house talking on a mobile phone. "She came over to me and she said, "Those children think their mama's asleep,' " Taylor said. " "But their mama's dead.' "
Taylor and other neighbors said Hernandez had heart problems and had lost a lot of weight recently. They think that she died from an illness, not from foul play, but police said Sunday that they have not ruled out the possibility that Hernandez was murdered in her home.
An autopsy was conducted Sunday to determine the cause of death. Homicide detectives will examine those results today and decide how to proceed. For now, Hernandez's case is classified as an unexplained death.
Russell, who taught the two oldest Hernandez girls in the Head Start program at Cleveland Elementary, said she tried on Saturday to comfort the four girls, who were bewildered by the day's events. Russell said the girls still didn't understand that their mother is dead.
"They just held onto me and hugged," she said. "I didn't want to question them; I just wanted to comfort them, so we didn't discuss the details. They still thought their mama was just sleeping."
Russell said she was impressed with the compassion showed by police officers on the scene, who bathed the girls in a neighbor's apartment, fed them McDonald's food and kept them away from the crowds of onlookers in front of their house.
Saturday night, police took the girls to their aunt's house in Sarasota. Russell said she hopes to visit them.
"Life was hard for her," said Taylor, Hernandez's neighbor. "She had a lot of stress, walking everywhere with four little girls, with a full-time job and trying to make ends meet. But she always had a smile on her face.
"She stuck with her children. They were her life."