Helen Terry lived a gentle and kind life. She served her country in the military and worked hard after leaving the service to raise her baby, her family said.
That makes it unimaginable for family to reckon with her brutal end on Aug. 28, 1980.
Terry desperately fought her assailant at her apartment in Sacramento’s Valley Hi / North Laguna neighborhood, police theorized at the time. Furniture overturned and blood was spattered while her baby watched his mother suffer 13 stab wounds during the assault, according to The Sacramento Bee’s previous reporting. A suspect had scrawled a racial slur over the bathroom door and vanity mirror, authorities said. Terry was Black.
“We just don’t have any words,” said John Mays, Terry’s brother. They have a large family, consisting of 12 brothers and sisters including Helen.
Mays spoke Thursday outside downtown Sacramento County Main Jail after attending the arraignment of Terry’s alleged killer: her husband, Robert Lee Terry. He was arrested last week after the investigation languished for 44 years, the Sacramento Police Department said in a news release Wednesday announcing the arrest.
“We want him to suffer as much as we have for the past 44 years,” Mays said.
Robert Terry, 81, appeared hunched over in a wheelchair as his attorney entered a plea of not guilty during his arraignment on a murder charge in Sacramento Superior Court. Terry spoke clearly when Judge John P. Winn asked if he would hire an attorney.
“My wife is taking care of the amount,” Terry responded. The Rancho Cordova resident was wheeled away by a deputy and is scheduled to return Oct. 17 for another court hearing.
Before her death, Helen Terry claimed the suspect had fathered her baby, something that Robert Terry disputed. A paternity suit was ongoing, according to previous Bee reporting.
Outside of court Thursday, Helen Terry’s family said she was married to Robert Terry and had a child with him. That child is out of town but was elated to hear news of the arrest, Mays said.
“It’s been a long, long time,” Mays said. “We’ve been waiting — and we’re gonna wait it out till the end.”
Officer Anthony Gamble, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said Wednesday that police were still investigating the identity of the son’s father.
The investigation into Helen Terry’s homicide, which happened at apartments on Wyndham Drive, had lapsed until a Sacramento police investigator reopened the case in 2016. DNA found at the scene “pointed” to Terry’s involvement in the cold case, but that still wasn’t enough evidence to charge Terry, the release said.
Police and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office used “advanced investigative methods” to find “new information” that provided “necessary evidence” to arrest Terry, the release said.
The District Attorney’s Office has declined to identify those methods and what new information had been unearthed.
Helen Terry’s family had “suspicions” of Robert Terry’s involvement and weren’t surprised when he was arrested, Mays said. The arrest brought them closer to feeling closure, he said.
“We still miss her,” Mays said. “She’s always been in my heart and always will be.”
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