Dawn broke with unimaginable horror in Angleton, Texas, on October 4, 2025, when a mother’s 911 call shattered the quiet. Oninda Romelus, 31, from Porter, confessed to deputies she’d shot her four children inside their car, claiming they were “with the devil.”
Two lay dead, 13-year-old O’Karreo Covington, shot in the head, and 3-year-old Amourra Chapell while 9-year-old Kylee and 8-year-old Traviel survived, airlifted to hospitals and now healing in foster care.
Deputies raced to the Oasis gas station on Highway 288, finding the scene a parent’s worst nightmare.
Romelus sat calmly amid the chaos, her words chilling: “Instead of them doing it to me, I’m gonna do it to them.” “Kill them all,” she said when pressed, her eyes far away, a window covering a torment only she felt she knew.
The tragedy resounds through the years of silent fighting of a young single mom who had previously filled her heart on TV in front of millions of viewers not too long ago.
With the wind knocked out of her national hopes the DNA testing shattered by our episode in July of 2025 found that neither man was the father.
Happiness. Happiness. They watched her tears, hoping for redemption, blind to the fact that this denial had the power to push her over the edge.
Court docs paint a frantic investigation: Romelus drove the wounded kids 40 miles from Montgomery County to the station, her mind unraveling.
Survivors Kylee and Traviel, shot in the arm and side, clung to life as medics fought for them. Released after weeks, they’re safe but scarred, their futures in tender hands.
Romelus faces two murder counts and two aggravated assaults, her $14 million bond a cage for a broken soul.
Her Georgia-based father, speaking to KHOU, reeled in shock: “She’s my baby girl, how could this happen?” Neighbors whisper of her isolation, a mom overwhelmed, her cries for help lost in the noise.
This isn’t merely a crime; it’s a gut-wrench: a woman, possibly crushed by paternity’s bite and life’s never-ending burden, unleashes agony on the innocents with whom they adored.
Karreo, the teenager whose dad-search captivated TV’s dragon, is gone for all eternity; Amourra, the toddler’s ray, has been extinguished. Kylee, and Traviel, the only survivors, are unable to experience a globe devoid of the grin of their brothers. Sheriff Justin Lewis, of Brazoria County, declared it “unthinkable” and promised full answers.
Mental health experts, on the other hand, have their say, seeking help for parents fighting their inner demons before yet another disaster strikes.
And that of Romelus? Melody’s cry over it: “hear the crying sound, fill the gaps until yet another family is broken!” Ccommunity-wide vigils, flickering candles, remembering those lost and nurturing the survivors.
Kylee’s obnoxious aunt Roseley “Love them, not pity, but hug them with it.” Melody’s echo? A call to action: “understand the indications, shield the infant, honor the innocent with action right now!”
