'Hero' Foster Mom, Her Adult Son and 11-Year-Old Daughter Stabbed and Killed Before 'Self-Inflicted' Death of Suspect

Mar. 15, 2025

Patricia McCollum.Photo:GoFundMe

GoFundMe

A Cincinnati foster mother known for her legacy of advocacy work was killed this week, along with two of her adopted children, before their suspected killer died of “apparent self-inflicted stab wounds” at a local hospital.

Anthony Mathis, 66, was identified as a suspect in the Thursday, Oct. 24 killings of 78-year-old Patricia McCollum, DJ McCollum, 32, and Kaydence McCollum (whose name has also been spelled as “Cadence”), 11, according to theCincinnati Police Department(CPD).

Mathis “succumbed to his injuries” later in the day after being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, police said.

According to CPD, police officers and Cincinnati Fire Department personnel responded to a stabbing report at Springbrook Drive around 8 a.m. local time on Oct. 24, before discovering the three victims with stab wounds and determining that they had died. The CPD’s Homicide Unit is investigating.

“Never dreamed of anything like this happening at all,” neighbor Diana Turnbow told NBC affiliateWLWT. “We just heard individuals yelling stop, come back, don’t run, things of that sort and that’s all we heard.”

Patricia McCollum.Patricia McCollum/Facebook

Patricia McCollum/Facebook

According to theCincinnati Enquirer, police found Mathis when they arrived at the home, where he retreated, before SWAT officers attempted to negotiate with him for hours.

His relationship to the victims was not made clear in a news release from the CPD. Per multiple outlets, including Fox affiliateWXIX,The Enquirerand WLWT, Mathis had a criminal history and was previously charged with strangulation and domestic violence in April 2023, with Patricia identified as the victim.

The domestic violence charge was eventually “dismissed for want of prosecution,” according to a court entry cited WXIX.

Patricia McCollum and DJ McCollum.GoFundMe

That legacy includes launching local community programs, fostering hundreds of children and licensing thousands of foster parents. According to the GoFundMe, she was known as “Pat for the People.”

ShaRonda Moore, a friend of Patricia, told ABC affiliateWCPOthat she and DJ shared “a very unbreakable bond” and that the mother was “very protective” of him. Moore was DJ’s agency provider and helped take care of him for 12 years, per the outlet.

“She was just a great advocate, loving mother, very supportive of all of her children and she would go above and beyond for each and every one of them,” Moore said.

According to the GoFundMe, Patricia adopted DJ as a child and he was “not supposed to live past the age of 7” due to medical issues stemming from a “childhood tragedy that left him with no limbs and more than 90% of his body deformed.”

“He lived beyond his years, 32, because of Ms. Pat’s love,” the fundraiser noted. “He learned to walk and talk providing a goal for him to walk across the stage to receive his diploma. She was his lifeline. She never wanted to separate from her son. She does not have to they are in Heaven together just as she’d written.”

Kaydence, per the fundraiser, “brought life and joy to a woman who thought she’d adopted her last child until she met this bright little one.”

“She mimicked her Mom — her smile, her laugh, and her heart,” the GoFundMe description read. “[She] was 11 years old. Too soon to leave this life but having had family and an overflow of love here.”

“Her legacy will never die,” foster parent Brent Williams told WCPO. “You know? Her legacy will never die.”

source: people.com