# Missing South Florida Teacher Found Slain In Canal



## Miss_Jetsetter (Jun 1, 2019)

*Police: Missing South Florida Teacher and Mother of Two Kameela Russell Found Slain in Canal*
By
Tanasia Kenney
-
May 31, 2019
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A body pulled from a canal in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday was that of missing mother *Kameela Russell*, Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office officials confirmed.






Kameela Russell, 41, was last seen May 15 when she arrived to her aunt’s house to pick up her two children. (CBS Miami / video screenshot)
An autopsy report revealed that Russell, 41, died from a blunt force head injury, CBS Miami reported. Her death is now being investigated as a homicide.

*Carlos Austin*, a spokesman for Miami Gardens Police, said it was an anonymous tip that led authorities to the canal where Russell’s badly decomposed body was found. The mother of two, who taught at Miami Norland Senior High School, was last seen May 15 as she arrived at her aunt’s house.

Relatives reported Russell missing after she failed to pick up her daughters from her aunt, who was watching them at the time. Donna Blyden recalled briefly seeing her niece in the driveway but said she never came inside.

Now Russell’s family, friends, colleagues and students are anxiously awaiting police to arrest her killer.

“She was a very nice lady. She was so giving,” student *Mormare Jones* told Local 10. “She was always nice to her students. She was a great person to be around. I loved Ms. Russell.”

*Alberto Carvalho*, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, wrote on Twitter that the he and the school community were “aching” for Russell’s family and loved ones.

“[We] pray they find the strength to bear the pain of this heartbreaking loss,” Carvalho added.

Eleventh-grader Zeniah Rolle said she couldn’t help but cry when she heard the devastating news.

“She was a wonderful teacher and she brought a positive energy to people’s lives,” Rolle said of the educator.

According to Local 10 News, Russell, a Bahamas native, worked for Broward County Public Schools at Walter C. Young Middle School in Pembroke Pines from 2003 to 2014 before going to Miami-Dade County Public Schools.  Before her disappearance, friends say she was planning to celebrate her students’ graduations.

Residents in the neighborhood who live down the street from Russell’s aunt’s home told CBS Miami that there had been a lot of police activity around one particular home during the height of the investigation.

Russell’s mother, *Linda Russell*, said she can’t think of anyone who would want to harm her daughter.

“Knowing her and the type of person she was, I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand it at all,” she told the station, adding that she’s just waiting on more details from police.

“Basically, they are just continuing the investigation now that they have recovered her body,” she continued.

Linda Russell is now watching over her 6-year-old and 15-year-old granddaughters.

A spokesperson for the family said they’re requesting privacy at this time.


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## Miss_Jetsetter (Jun 1, 2019)

This happened down in my neck of the woods and I've been checking back for updates as far as who could've done this to this woman! There have been lots of crazy rumors online so it literally could have been anyone! I feel horrible for her poor daughters!!


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Jun 2, 2019)

This is so sad. Very strange that she showed up at her aunts house to pick up the kids but didn’t come inside.


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## SoniT (Jun 2, 2019)

That's very sad. She was right at her aunt's house but didn't make it inside. The news has been so depressing lately.


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## Southernbella. (Jun 2, 2019)

I'm sure they're already looking into current and former significant others. I wouldn't be shocked if it was an ex.


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## Laela (Jun 2, 2019)

Looks like they're island folks, from the Bahamas. @Iwanthealthyhair67 

The police has two investigations going, this is really a bizarre story. Wonder why she didn't step foot inside her aunt's house?


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## blackgurll (Jun 2, 2019)

In one news report a few days ago, I read that they had the area on lockdown while searching the home of a former colleague.


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## Southernbella. (Jun 2, 2019)

SoniT said:


> That's very sad. She was right at her aunt's house but didn't make it inside. The news has been so depressing lately.



I've seen similar cases on true crime shows and it's so much worse because they were only a few feet from safety. One woman's ex dh took her when she was checking the mail at the end of the driveway.


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## Laela (Jun 2, 2019)

Man.. that's some crazy stuff.. now I'm wondering if she was under duress and risked her family getting harmed if she stepped foot inside. This is one for a true crime show... I'll be watching this one.


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## guudhair (Jun 2, 2019)

I pray whoever is responsible is caught.

The article is kind of confusing.  One part has she arrived to pick them up and another part has that she failed to pick up them up.  I wonder if it meant to say that her aunt saw her in the driveway when she dropped them off.

It wouldn’t seem particularly strange if she didn’t go inside to drop them off if her aunt watches them often.  I can see a parent not getting out of the car when dropping off a 15-year old and her little sister at an aunt’s home.


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## Always~Wear~Joy (Jun 14, 2019)

*Former assistant principal charged with murder of Norland High educator | Miami Herald*
*CRIME*
*Former assistant principal charged with murder of Norland High educator*
BY DAVID OVALLE

JUNE 14, 2019 08:05 AM, UPDATED 31 MINUTES AGO

Police detectives took Ernest Joseph Roberts, 39, into custody early Friday morning. Police obtained an arrest warrant for a charge of first-degree murder.

Sources say investigators believe they found forensic evidence that Russell died inside the house, and that he disposed of her car, which was later found by police detectives. Phone records also placed Russell at Roberts’ Miami Gardens home when she disappeared, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Russell, a popular test proctor at the Northwest Miami-Dade high school, was last seen alive May 15 pulling into her aunt’s driveway. She abruptly drove off and vanished.

She went missing for more than a week before a teenager found her washed up on the banks of a canal squeezed between Florida’s Turnpike and a gated neighborhood called Andover. The canal is across the street from Roberts’ house.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Russell died of blunt-force trauma.

* Investigators immediately honed in on Roberts, the ex-assistant principal at Norland, who Russell’s family says has known the woman since childhood. Her mother, Linda Russell, initially told the Miami Herald that she did not believe Roberts had anything to do with her disappearance.*

“That would surprise me because I’ve never seen anything that would warrant all of that,” Linda Russell said last week.

* Roberts, hired by Miami-Dade County Public Schools in 2004, had been an assistant principal at Norland alongside Russell. But in February, he was transferred to Linda Lentin K-8 Center in North Miami. Why he was transferred is unknown*.


Days after Russell went missing — and before her body was found — Miami Gardens police detectives secured a search warrant to search his home on the 1500 block of Northwest 203rd Street.


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## Miss_Jetsetter (Jun 14, 2019)

Always~Wear~Joy said:


> *Former assistant principal charged with murder of Norland High educator | Miami Herald*
> *CRIME*
> *Former assistant principal charged with murder of Norland High educator*
> BY DAVID OVALLE
> ...


 I have so many questions I don't even know where to start!!


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## FriscoGirl (Jun 14, 2019)

Miss_Jetsetter said:


> I have so many questions I don't even know where to start!!


*
“The two had known each other since childhood — he was even the godfather of her two children.”*

Wow, just WOW... so so many questions


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## Theresamonet (Jun 14, 2019)

Wow, an assistant principal who she’s known since childhood.  These men out here will kill you. Can’t trust any of them. 

Wasn’t there a similar story a few years back? Teacher found dead, killed by male principal?


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## sweetvi (Jun 15, 2019)

Rumor is she was pregnant for him and was planning to keep the child


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## dancinstallion (Jun 15, 2019)

sweetvi said:


> Rumor is she was pregnant for him and was planning to keep the child



That wouldn't surprise me. He is probably married with grown children too.


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## sheanu (Jun 15, 2019)

sweetvi said:


> Rumor is she was pregnant for him and was planning to keep the child


Yes this is what I heard from someone close to the family before she was officially found. The thought was that he might have put a hit out on her or done it himself.


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## CurlyNiquee (Jun 15, 2019)




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## ElegantPearl17 (Jun 15, 2019)

This is crazy. A slut house?? You meeting up..but not using protection. Why??!!! Black women harmed.


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## Chicoro (Jun 15, 2019)




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## Chicoro (Jun 15, 2019)

True Crime
*‘Throw this note away!’ How a frantic note led cops to a former principal suspected of killing a teacher*



Eli Rosenberg
June 14 at 10:10 PM

The police received a call on a Monday in May from an employee at a grade school in Miami.

The employee said that one of his co-workers, Ernest Joseph Roberts, 39, an assistant principal at another Miami high school who had recently been transferred to the grade school, had called him that morning with an unusual request, according to court records.

Roberts, who at the time was on a field trip with students in Washington, pointed the employee to a handwritten note he had left in the drawer of a filing cabinet at the school along with a set of car keys, according to court records.

“Do you know anyone that can chop up a car?” the note read. “If so or make it ‘disappear’ take these keys. Its behind the speedway racetrack on 441 by County line. Friends are gone and need it to disappear. If not leave it + I’ll work it out later. Throw this note away!”


The employee contacted police because he knew that a teacher, Kameela Russell, at Roberts’s former school was missing, court records said.

Roberts was arrested and charged Friday with first-degree murder in Russell’s death. The employee’s phone call touched off an investigation that led to the arrest. Russell’s body was found in a canal near Roberts’s house.

The disappearance of the well-liked high school teacher drew headlines in the Miami area for weeks, but news of Roberts’s arrest has generated a fresh round of intrigue. Reports have focused on lurid details laid out in an affidavit police filed for an arrest warrant as evidence of the seemingly brazen nature of the alleged crime. County officials, including Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, joined other officials to brief the public on the case Friday and speak about Russell’s tragic death.


“I knew Kameela,” Gilbert said, explaining that he knew her from visits to the school where she taught, Norland Senior High. “She was the sweetest. When I take that long walk down the hallway and go to her office, it didn’t matter what she was doing, she always greeted you with a smile.”

Roberts had known Russell since the two were young; he was her children’s godfather, authorities said.

The case began May 15, when Russell’s aunt, Donna Blyden, called police to report that her niece was missing. Blyden told police that something strange had happened earlier in the night, according to court documents.

She said she saw Russell’s car, a black Audi, pull up to her Miami Gardens home around 6 p.m., on schedule to pick up Russell’s daughter and take her to a gymnastics class, according to court documents. But after Blyden readied the child to leave, she saw that the car had left the driveway. She called and texted her niece but received no reply over the next few hours.
_[Murder with Impunity: Where killings go unsolved]_

Police began to look into the case, finding that Russell was a teacher at Norland, according to court documents. She had shown up to work that day in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of the school’s wrestling program, charcoal-colored jogging pants and dark tennis shoes, and was shown on video leaving the campus, as well.

Detectives met with the grade school employee after getting his call; the employee told them he had received a call from Roberts on May 15 in which Roberts told him, “I did something crazy,” court documents said. Roberts told the employee that he had killed an intruder at his mother’s house with a baseball bat, then wrapped the body in a tarp and dragged it through his house, leaving blood stains.

Roberts had asked the employee how to get rid of the blood stains; the employee told him to use bleach, but told police he had been joking, according to court records.

That day, police went to Roberts’s house, which is a few blocks away from Blyden’s home. There they found an Amazon box with blood spatter on it and bloody sandals, court records said. The house smelled of bleach, the records said. They also found the black Audi, exactly where the note said it would be.

Five days later, a teenager found a body wrapped in plastic in a canal a few blocks from Roberts’s house, according to the Miami Herald. An autopsy found that the person had died of blunt force trauma to the head; the corpse was wearing a black T-shirt that read “Norland Wrestling” and charcoal-colored jogging pants. Police identified the body as Russell from her fingerprints and tattoos. DNA from the body matched the blood at Roberts’s house.

Video that police obtained from surveillance cameras at a house across the street from Roberts’s show Russell arriving in Roberts’s driveway about 6 p.m. that May day and entering his house. About 6:54 p.m., Roberts is seen on video backing Russell’s car up close to the front door of his house, court records said. Russell is never seen leaving the house, they said. Police said the last person to have any contact with Russell was Roberts, who called her at 6:01 p.m. that day.

Information about Roberts’s legal representation was not immediately available.

The Miami-Dade County public school district said that Roberts had been removed from duty while the case was being investigated and that district authorities are now terminating his employment. He had worked for the public school system since 2004.

He was arrested Friday morning after he dropped his stepdaughter off at a home, the Miami Herald reported.

_Katie Mettler contributed to this report. _

*Read more: *

Eli RosenbergEli Rosenberg is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment team. He has worked at the New York Times

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crim...ected-killing-teacher/?utm_term=.bd9173c43c82


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## Chicoro (Jun 15, 2019)




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## Laela (Jun 15, 2019)

The local paper reported he had gotten divorced  in 2018.. unless he recently  remarried?  Either way this is profoundly disheartening.  Her mom apparently was clueless about her liaisons or outright had lied to save face. That teacher was a beautiful woman with a lot of life. I also feel badly for the students of both schools, to experience this type of trauma.. hearing all these sordid things while mourning the death and arrest of teachers they'd looked up to. Hope both schools are providing counseling


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## Always~Wear~Joy (Jun 15, 2019)

Her message to her graduating seniors is in the beginning.


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## Theresamonet (Jun 15, 2019)

I don’t know if I believe the slut house story. Whose house is it? Do all the teachers in Dade County pool their money for expenses?   Unless the police release details about an orgy or something that got out of hand, I’m not going to believe it.

Also, there was an autopsy done. That would have revealed that she was pregnant. And that would make this a double homicide, but he was only charged with 1 count. So, not sure if I believe the pregnancy story either.

There are a lot of rumors swirling around this case... Probably a lot put out by their students. The slut house thing, sounds like something teens would make up.


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## Froreal3 (Jun 17, 2019)

I don’t believe the slut house thing. Probably something kids thought of. I feel so badly for this teacher, her family, and especially her girls. This is so sad. I believe she and the AP had something going on, which led to him killing her.


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## intellectualuva (Jun 17, 2019)

I can believe they were having an affair. The rest.....nah. 

I feel for her family and babies who now have to grow up without their mother.


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## oneastrocurlie (Jun 17, 2019)

Wow.


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## SoniT (Jun 17, 2019)

Wow this story took a turn.


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## Charmingchick1 (Jun 17, 2019)

Wow.  This is such a sad story.  I wonder what his motive was.  It doesn’t seem like she was pregnant.  Maybe he was trying to break it off, but she was not ready to let go.  Whatever the reason, he didn’t have to do this to her.


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## Iwanthealthyhair67 (Jun 17, 2019)

Laela said:


> Looks like they're island folks, from the Bahamas. @Iwanthealthyhair67
> 
> The police has two investigations going, this is really a bizarre story. Wonder why she didn't step foot inside her aunt's house?



I didn't even know about this until last week when it started to unfold, this is so sad


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