Grave of slain District tyke will be given suitable marker

Adrienne T. Washington

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Cathy Connelly of Annandale is still haunted by the sad eyes and sullen expression that seemed far too old for a 2-year-old. This was a child she never spoke to - never even smiled at - while waiting in a line or at a traffic light.

But Dontray Kevin Bradley keeps calling out to this stranger from his grave in Harmony Memorial Park in Landover. The grave is unmarked. She hears him whisper, "Remember me."

Dontray - if you can't recall after the dreadful deaths of so many babies - was beaten to death June 3, his second birthday. He reportedly committed the unthinkable crime of wetting on the feet of his aunt's boyfriend. Dontray was hit so hard his spleen ruptured.

Dontray had been taken from his mother and placed in the care of his aunt by the District's Child Protective Service.

The boyfriend, Reginald Hunter, 27, is awaiting trial on a charge of second-degree murder in Dontray's death.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," says Mrs. Connelly. She remembers tiny details she read about Dontray's short life. Most of all, she remembers a picture of him along with two children who are smiling while he "looked so sad."

"I very much want this little boy to have a marker on his grave as some sort of permanent recognition of his short time on Earth," she wrote in a letter to The Washington Times. "All these cases involving brutalities against children are tragic. But this one is particularly haunting to me - one, because he was murdered on his birthday, a day meant to celebrate his life, and two, the manner in which his short life was so savagely ended.

"I know there is a piece of society willing to contribute to a marker for little Dontray - not because it will make anyone happy or bring about any good but because, in a small way, we can say we are sorry and make a statement that this little boy is loved. It is a final gesture of love and respect for a little boy who probably received none while he was alive."

It is not as though she does not have enough to tie up her time and money: Mrs. Connelly is the mother of an active, highly-imaginative 3-year-old and four stepchildren, ages 12 to 20. She works at a demanding job with the Justice Department.

After months of battling with the D.C. Department of Human Services, she finally got a release from Dontray's mother to purchase a headstone for the child's grave. Only then did she discover that Dontray is buried in a pauper's grave and she could have put a marker there without the mother's permission.

For some reason, Dontray's coffin was too big to be buried in "Babyland," a grassy knoll where about 150 poor children are buried each year among some 700 paupers who wind up there at city expense.

Dontray's body lies in Hilltop, one of several "welfare sections" in Harmony Memorial Park. Grave markers here are few and far between. Most graves, like Dontray's, are marked only by one quarter of a small metal disc, a grid marker.

Dressed in an all-weather coat, silk dress and sensible pumps, Mrs. Connelly seems on the surface to be another soldier in the army of suburban housewives who have signed up to do battle in whatever is the current charity craze. On a cold, damp and windy day last week, with flowers in hand, she tiptoed respectfully across the soggy field, scanning the ground searching for the small metal disk marking Dontray's grave: Hilltop, Lot D, No. 162.

Visibly chilled and shaken, Mrs. Connelly returned to the cemetery's business office where she chose the standard $850 child's Kingdom of God plaque with "Little Angel" on it for Dontray. She put $50 down and signed a form agreeing to pay $25 on the 10th of each month until it is paid in full, at which time Dontray's marker will be installed.

"No matter how long it takes, I'm going to do this," she said emphatically.

She isn't asking, dear reader, but if you would like to help Mrs. Connelly in this mission you can send a donation to her in care of me at The Washington Times.

It may not seem like much to some. But because these two souls connected - even though they never met - one of them will not leave this Earth forgotten.