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In aftermath of killing
by Gale Horton Gay
Invitation to the junior/senior prom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, April 1977…Ticket stub from the 1979 Earth, Wind and Fire concert at the Omni...The Larry Tinsley WAOK 1380 Soul Patrol card…Atlanta Public Schools cafeteria card…Bazooka Joe bubble gum comics…Bureau of Engraving and Printing admission ticket
Memories mattered to Linda Yancey. In a scrapbook whose manila pages are crumbling with age, her collection of concert tickets, graduation cards, sports admission tickets, prom invitations, photographs and more tell a story of the halcyon days of her youth.
The memorabilia dates back to the 1970s when a young Linda Ann Thomas met a young Derrick Yancey when she was in the 10th grade, according to relatives. She penned their names in swirling cursive above photos of the couple—fresh-faced and beaming—in their prom best. Years later, the two would marry.
Memories and memorabilia are among the few reminders of their young romance. Thirty years later it is a funeral program that marks the tragic final chapter of Linda Yancey’s life.
The 46-year-old mother of two was shot and killed in her Stone Mountain home in June, and her husband of 17 years, Derrick Yancey, has been charged with killing her and a laborer Marcial Cax Puluc. Initially Yancey told police that in a robbery attempt Puluc shot and killed his wife and then he shot Puluc. Yancey was arrested in August and charged with killing them both.
Yancey has been on the run since April 4, when he is believed to have cut off the electronic ankle monitor he was wearing while under house arrest at his mother’s Jonesboro home. He had not turned himself in or been recaptured by authorities as of mid-day Tuesday, April 14. Yancey was reportedly sighted on Easter Sunday at the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta, however, he was not located after police searched the area.
Looking through Linda’s memory book brought smiles, laughter and lively chatter from some of her seven siblings who gathered at Sandra Hannon’s Decatur home last week. The Thomas family of six brothers and four sisters—one child died in infancy—grew up in Atlanta.
“I didn’t realize how much she and I look alike,” said Hannon while looking at photographs from her sister’s book. “That’s me, that’s my brother Mel, that’s me, that’s Gloria.”
“Oh, she was a pretty girl,” cooed Gloria Sanders, who clutched a clear pouch bulging with color photographs that once belonged to her sister Linda. “We did take a lot of pictures when we got together.”
Loose, framed and mounted photographs of Derrick playing a guitar, Linda with changing hairstyles, Derrick and Linda arm in arm were scattered across a kitchen island counter and dining table in Hannon’s kitchen. They flipped through the images, commenting, recalling and laughing.
“She loved bubble gum and candy apples,” said Hannon, who was smiling and laughing at that moment but earlier dabbed away tears while talking about missing the sister, whom she described as quiet, and to whom she spoke every day.
Members of the Thomas and Hannon family gathered at Hannon’s home on Thrasher Circle in Decatur on Saturday, April 11, when a camera crew from America’s Most Wanted visited to film the family for an upcoming segment on the television fugitive show. That segment is expected to air at 9 p.m. April 25 on WAGA-TV if Yancey is still on the run.
According to Hannon Linda’s focus was always on her children, her home and the job she held for 14 years with the DeKalb County sheriff’s department.
“She didn’t have to stay there and live with that,” said Hannon, who said her brother-in-law had been verbally abusive to her sister and was controlling with his children. She said he worked three jobs and was obsessed with money.
Hannon said through her faith she has forgiven her brother-in-law though she hopes he turns himself in or is captured and eventually receives two life sentences plus 50 years through the court system.
Linda’s failing was being too in love with Derrick to walk away from the marriage, Hannon said, adding that she had told a girlfriend she’d had enough and wanted out.
Hannon said she struggles with the “cold blood” way in which her sister and Puluc were killed.
“That poor fellow was trying to send money back to his family,” she said.
Hannon said she will see to it that her sister’s collection is preserved and cherished. She plans to pass her memory book on to her Linda’s youngest son Cameron, who’s now 9, when he comes of age.
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