Tonight, I go into my crime notes to remember the case of Lisa Eatmon, a pregnant woman who was found floating in the Hudson River in 2005. Her killer: the father of her unborn child, a man named Roscoe Glinton.
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| Lisa Eatmon (credit: Traciy Curry-Reyes/Darlene Lassiter Jabir) |
Her story was similar to Laci Peterson's case. They were both eight months pregnant when they disappeared, and they were both dumped in a body of water. Laci's story went nationwide. Everyone knew about Laci Peterson's story, but few people outside of New York knew anything about Lisa Eatmon.
I had never heard of the case. Someone contacted me in 2017 because they wanted me to bring awareness to Lisa's story. And to, possibly, get the story on television. That person put me in contact with Lisa's sister, Darlene Lassiter Jabir. And yes, Darlene confirmed that Lisa's case didn't get the attention it deserved. She said her sister's case had never been featured in a national television crime documentary.
She remembered that Court TV was at the murder trial covering the case, but nothing came out of it. She said at the time of the trial, a plane or a helicopter had crashed into an apartment building in New York, so that became the big news story.
Now, for those of you who don't remember Lisa Eatmon's case, here is a gist of the story.
It was an April Sunday morning in 2005 when crew members aboard the Spirit of New Jersey made an alarming discovery. Floating in the icy waters of the Hudson River was what they believed to be a large doll or mannequin at Chelsea Pier on the west side. The men fished the large doll out of the water. They turned it over, and they were shocked to see its bulging belly.
So, this was not a doll. It was a pregnant Black woman dressed in pajama bottoms and a black hooded sweatshirt. They could tell the woman had not been in the water for long. They rushed her to the hospital, but they were not able to save her life. She was already gone.
And because there was no apparent trauma to the body, it was assumed the woman jumped into the water. New York police identified the victim as 33-year-old Lisa Eatmon of Brooklyn. So they headed to her apartment and spoke with neighbors who told them she lived in that apartment and she has a young daughter. Her daughter was 11 years old at the time.
Now, her daughter told detectives that she last saw her mother in bed, asleep between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., in the morning. So something happened in the middle of the night.
They spoke with family members, and her distraught sister told them that Lisa was involved with a man named Roscoe Glinton. Now Roscoe was a light-skinned, handsome playboy from the islands. He had a wife and children and didn't want anything to do with Lisa or the baby.
Prosecutors believe Roscoe somehow lured Lisa from her apartment in the middle of the night, took her to the pier, and ended her life. The motive: Roscoe didn't want to pay child support. He didn't want Lisa and the baby interrupting his life.
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| Roscoe Glinton and Deborah Glinton with Lisa Eatmon (credit: Police File Photo & Family Scrapbook) |
And there was a twist in this case. Roscoe's first wife, Deborah Glinton, 39, disappeared in New York in 1998. Her remains were discovered three years later in the woods, and there was never enough proof to secure a conviction for that killing.
You know, this story sticks with me. It's one of the stories that I never forgot. I think it's a story that teaches a lot of lessons. And you know, Lisa was beautiful. She had been in the military. She was well-liked. She had an infectious laugh and cute dimples on her cheeks. Life was just never the same for the family, especially for her daughter, having to grow up without her.
Now, in 2017, the finished article was called Lisa Eatmon: The Other Laci Peterson. That same year, I passed this story to a television producer who asked me if I had any more interesting cases for their channel. They ended up not moving forward with the Lisa Eatmon story at that time, but the story was still out there in TV land.
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| Lisa Eatmon documentary |
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| Eatmon Case for TV |
In August of 2020, I was contacted by another producer who was developing a new TV series on the Oxygen Network. They wanted to feature the stories of African American women whose homicides were underreported---underrepresented---in the media. They were reaching out to me because I had covered the case of Lisa Eatmon extensively. I had a lot of information on the web at that time about it, and there were a lot of background details that were not publicly known at that time.
So her story was eventually featured in a television documentary. But what I'm sharing with you tonight is something you never got to see or hear: the private conversation with Lisa's sister Darlene from the beginning of my research.
I wanted to give you a sort of behind-the-scenes look at how I put cases together and how I document information. We had an incredible conversation. For that piece, I didn’t want to conduct a phone interview. I wanted something deeper. I wanted something more personal.
I gave her some questions, and I asked her to record herself in her own time, in her own words, as if she was reflecting on the story. I wanted to listen to her private thoughts as she voiced them.
So this audio that I’m presenting to you now is unpolished, and it contains some crackling noises—but that’s the point. That makes it real. That’s authentic.
Now, some sections have been muted because there is some sensitive information there that I don’t want to put out. But what remained was the soul of our conversation.
It was a Tuesday morning when we began, and over the course of the entire week, I gathered as much information as I could. And if you have time tonight, I’d like to share that raw audio with you.
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| Lisa Eatmon (credit: Traciy Curry-Reyes/Darlene Lassiter Jabir) |
Transcript: Interview with Darlene Lassiter Jabir
My younger brother was actually the one who was home when the call came in. He called us to let us know what was going on. After that happened, you could just tell—my father…
Traciy Curry-Reyes
It doesn’t all have to be tonight—you can just send your thoughts randomly throughout the day or even over the next few days. That’s totally fine. I’m planning to really sit down this weekend and go through everything carefully, so I can start putting something together for the article.
Bye.
Darlene Lassiter Jabir
After that happened, you could tell that my father was really upset, and I think it really ate him up because of his decision to tell her not to come. He felt that he was probably at fault for her death, because had she come down to Philadelphia and been with him, he believed that would never have happened.
Unfortunately, five months after she passed away, he also passed away.
I saw him actually pretty much age within those five months. You could just tell he was so worried and stressed out behind the fact that this had happened to his baby girl—because Lisa was the baby girl. So, she did have a daughter. We pray for her. And, you know, every day is just another day—but it gets a little bit easier.
I know for me, a lot of times it’s hard, especially around this time of year, because this is the right time it happened.
And going through the trial for the three weeks was just horrifying—just to see somebody that could actually kill somebody and hold a murder and just sit there and act like nothing ever happened. You know, the good thing was the jury did find that he was guilty.
Since the baby was not born, they couldn’t charge him. So, he was only charged with Lisa’s death.
And so, he was sentenced to 25. At the time he was sentenced, the judge did tell him in open court that even though he was only charged with 25 to life, which was the mandatory sentence that they could actually hand down, he did say that he would make sure that he would never, ever be able to come up—or when he came up for parole, that he would not be getting out during that first parole hearing, and hopefully he would never get out of jail.
Again, since Lisa’s death, we’ve also had some other things that have happened in the family. For example, of course, my dad—he died five months later.
So that, in fact, is what he did—two years ago, five days after my 50th birthday. Lisa was just so influential in the family because she was just so bubbly, so full of life. And the fact that she had just celebrated her baby shower, waiting for a nephew to be born, and for something like that to happen—it was just such a tragedy.
Lisa was in the Army. She was very smart. She knew how to take care of herself. She knew to protect herself. But she was just apparently caught off guard.
As a matter of fact, when she was stationed down in Texas—oh my gosh, it happened 27 years ago—when my daughter was 32, I actually sent my daughter on the plane down to Texas for a couple weeks to visit with Lisa. And she actually had a ball down there.
When Lisa left there, she was stationed in Frederick, which wasn’t too far from where I live in Prince George’s County.
So she would drive over this way, and we would hang out and do things—just being sisters, hanging out.
But to hear that your sister has been killed by someone that she knew over something as crazy as not wanting to take care of a baby—it just really doesn’t sit well at all with me.
Traciy, I really don’t know what else to say. I mean, Lisa was just a fun-loving, outgoing person who just loved life.
And you know, she befriended everybody she met, basically.
Just a good, good girl. Somebody that was just—just gone too soon.
Just let me know if you need more information. Thanks for these. I’m going to give them a listen, and I’ll send questions to you if I have questions. Thank you so much. Bye.
And as far as the wife that he had when he was seeing her—uh, I was asking: did she know before she started dating him that he had a wife?
Or was that something that she sort of found out after they started dating, and by that time they were in love, etc.?
Did she ever feel like he was in love with her, that he wanted to be with her, and then at some point that changed?
Or did she realize that he really didn’t want a relationship with her at all?
Um, I don't have any connections with anybody at Dateline, but I know once I write the Laci Peterson story and connect it to your sister's story, they'll see it. So... um... let's get it circulated again.
Darlene Lassiter Jabir:
Hey Traciy. Um, I found out Lisa was missing.
We were all at my place—my dad, my stepmom, my mother, my oldest brother—celebrating the birth of my grandson that had occurred on March 30th.
My younger brother had called my house because the police department got in contact with him somehow in Philadelphia.
So he called us while he was on his way to New York to get my niece, and he just explained...
Um, at the time of the call, he just told my dad that somebody had broke into the house—just to get him to get back to Philadelphia without letting him know what was going on, ’cause he had to drive back.
Um, and then they found out once they got...
When they left, my brother called me back and told me what had happened, um, but made sure that when my dad and my stepmom got back to Philadelphia, there were some detectives there to let them know what had happened.
So, they had already traveled to Philadelphia, and my brother was on his way up to New York City to, um, to get my niece.
And then that Monday morning, we actually—I drove to Philadelphia that Monday morning—and then we drove up to New York together.
Me, my dad, my stepmom, and my uncle—to identify her... to identify her body.
Traciy Curry-Reyes:
Sorry—how did, uh, the prosecutors allege that it happened?
How did he get to her? They were broken up.
How did he convince her to go with him, or how was it that he came in contact with her that day?
Just briefly—what did they say?
Darlene Lassiter Jabir:
Hey Traciy. Um, okay—the prosecutors say that they believe he lured Lisa out of the house that morning. He must have told her he wanted to talk to her about something, because she was actually in bed in her pajamas that night while her daughter was up playing video games.
I think Marielle said she was up ’til like 1 or 2:00 in the morning, and Lisa was still in bed, asleep. So, whatever happened—happened after 2:00 that morning. So, they believe that he lured her out of the house, maybe said he wanted to talk to her.
They did find a speck down at the dock where he worked as a sanitation worker, and it actually matched. That’s how they connected the dots. That was part of the evidence they had against him, along with the cell phone calls.
Apparently, his wife was making phone calls to him at the time.
He said he was in one part of town, but his cell phone—even though he wasn’t answering it—he didn’t realize that every time she called, it was pinging off a cell tower which was pretty much close to where Lisa lived.
And they actually pinpointed him to a payphone which was right down the street from where Lisa’s house was.
Lisa was living in New York at the time. Her, my dad, and her mom—and my mom—they all lived in Philadelphia, and I lived in Maryland.
My mom and my dad and my stepmom drove down that Sunday morning, as I was saying, because my grandson was born and we were celebrating that.
Lisa wanted to come, but that’s when my dad told her he didn’t want her on the road because she was so far into her pregnancy, and she was actually due at any time.
So that’s where, you know, we get the three states mixed together—between New York, Philly, and Maryland.
My brother at the time—my younger brother—he was still in Philadelphia.
So, when he got the phone call, he was the one that actually went to New York while we were here. And he was calling here to let us—he didn’t want to let my dad know what was going on because they had to get on the highway to drive back.
So, he just made up a story just to get them on the road.
And then after I assured him that they had left, that’s when he told me that they had found Lisa’s body in the Hudson River that morning.
And apparently, she hadn’t been...
She was in there—I think they had a faint pulse, and they were trying to revive her just so they could actually save the baby.
And apparently, they worked on her probably for about 45 minutes.
Then—I guess—the captain of the Spirit of New York they're the ones that found Lisa in the water and pulled her out and
contacted the proper authorities.
Deborah Thomas Glinton Disappearance and Murder Timeline
1998—June 10: Deborah Glinton writes a frightening entry in her journal, detailing how Roscoe romanced her and lured her into a candlelit bath before tossing a hairdryer in the tub to kill her.
- June 20: Ten days later, Deborah Glinton fails to show up to her job at the dentist's office, where she works as an assistant. Since she is always on time. And her home phone is out of order, so Deborah’s boss contacts the police to report her missing.
- Police arrive at Deborah Glinton’s home on Saratoga Drive and find only the children. The missing woman’s two sons–ages 10 and 11, and her daughter, age five, say their parents were at work. They also tell police their father, Roscoe Glinton, had argued with their mother the night before.
- Concerned for Deborah Glinton’s welfare, police check the garage, where they find her car still parked, and her purse inside.
- During an interview with Roscoe Glinton, he admits the couple had an argument, which ended with him taking a spot on the couch to sleep for the night. He last saw his wife as he headed to work around 4:30 a.m.
- The sanitation worker gives the police two different stories regarding the route he took to work. In the first version, he says he traveled on the New York State Thruway. In the second version of the story, he indicates he took the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge through Westchester County.
- The woman’s husband, Roscoe Glinton, is a suspect. New York detectives want Roscoe to take a lie detector test. He refuses. A lack of evidence against him, means detectives can’t make an arrest. They watch and follow him over the next several months.
- Roscoe becomes angry and agrees to an interview with the local news. Tearfully, he says the police department is harassing him and denies having anything to do with Deborah Glinton’s disappearance or murder. He also says he is praying for her return.
- Roscoe Glinton’s girlfriend is a former police officer.
- Deb’s family says she was not happy with her husband, a womanizer who cheated repeatedly over the years. He also abused her.
- Her family finds a secret journal Deb kept, in which she detailed years of unhappiness and domestic violence. On one occasion, he put a gun to her head as she talked with her sister on the phone. Another time, he dragged her out of the house naked because she arrived home late after a day out with her mother and aunt.
- She also kept a log of her suspicions Roscoe had another woman. She is correct. He is dating four to five women on the side. One of them is a former New York City cop who later claims she didn’t know her boyfriend was married.
- Without physical evidence and witnesses to tie Roscoe Glinton to Deborah Glinton’s murder, the case goes cold.
- Deborah Glinton’s mother takes in her daughter’s children.
- Roscoe fights for custody of his children. They finally move back in with him.
- Roscoe Glinton marries another woman. The couple has a daughter together.
- The skeletal remains are in poor condition, and animals have disturbed the area. An autopsy report cannot determine a cause of death, and it is not ruled a homicide.
2000
2001: The body of Deborah Glinton is found by hunters under some leaves in the woods over 90 feet from Interstate 87—twelve miles south of Newburgh. This is the same area that Roscoe named in version two of his statements to the police about the route he took the morning his wife disappeared. Dental records confirmed her identity.