Law enforcement advises calling them immediately if you receive a letter demanding money under the threat of violence or physical harm, even if it says not to do so. Only a scant few people are ever faced with the scary scenario, but forty-five-year-old Donna Baldeo, a Wells Fargo bank manager in Houston, was indirectly faced with such a predicament.

From seeing the picture, you are probably thinking Donna received a ransom letter for the return of her daughter Bunny, but that is not the case. Donna’s dilemma did not involve a kidnapping.

Donna was, only by chance, the person who found a letter lying in front of the bank’s entrance when she came to work on the morning of December 22, 2001. The letter was not meant for her personally; it was instead directed at her employer. Threatening violence, the writer demanded all of the bank’s money.

Donna did exactly what the letter’s writer said not to do: she called the police. Their investigation failed to turn up any leads to the writer’s identity.

Five weeks later, on February 1, 2002, a fire, determined to be arson, took the lives of Donna Baldeo, her twenty-two-year-old son Jailall (Jai) Lewis, and eight-year old daughter Bunny Terry.

Authorities feared the letter writer had followed through on his threat.

Donna Baldeo, Jai Lewis, and Bunny Terry

The Wells Fargo bank Donna managed was a drive-through branch just outside of Houston. She was the first to arrive at work on the morning of December 22, 2001. As she prepared to enter the bank, she came upon the letter, encased in a protective plastic sheath, lying in front of the door.

Donna was usually the first person to work each morning, but after examining the letter’s contents, authorities found nothing indicating the note was meant for her personally. The paper had been cleaned of fingerprints and no clues were found to its author. No suspects were identified.

Bank Manager

Five weeks later, at 3:30 a.m. on February 1, 2002, firemen were dispatched to the Chateau Dijon Apartment Complex in Clear Lake City, part of greater Houston. When they arrived, the building was engulfed in flames.

Donna and her children lived on the second floor of the apartment complex. Firemen found Donna and Jai lying in the courtyard, badly burned. Both were hysterical, screaming that Bunny was still inside the complex.

All of the other apartment residents had escaped the building unharmed.

A Larger Trauma

Curtis Ford lived directly below Donna’s apartment. He saw Jai on the stairwell desperately screaming for Bunny. Curtis grabbed Jai by his ankles and dragged him outside. Curtis also heard Donna frantically scream for her daughter; badly burned and unable to find her, he also pulled Donna from the flames.

Curtis Ford

Apartment Resident

The fire had been confined to the stairwell. After the flames were suppressed, firemen found the charred remains of Bunny Terry.

In the moments preceding the fire, several residents had heard one or more persons running up and down the stairs and knocking on doors. Investigators believed Bunny had awakened after hearing the noises and opened the door shortly after the fire started. She is believed to have become engulfed in the flames, and, frightened and disorganized, tried to run downstairs, only to perish.

Bunny Succumbs  

Jai and Donna are believed to have awakened shortly after Bunny. They both tried to rescue her but could not. They were rushed to the Memorial Hermann Hospital, stricken with severe burns covering nearly all of their bodies.

Jai succumbed to his wounds at 10:30 a.m.; his mom perished half-an-hour later.

Jai And Donna Also Die

The fire was found to be arson, and some investigators believed Donna may have been targeted by the writer of the letter she found at her bank five weeks earlier. Another avenue explored by police was that the incident could have been related to fifteen small fires which had occurred at the Chateau Dijon Apartment Complex over the preceding three years.

Neither theory proved correct.

Chateaux Dijon Apartment Complex

In July 2002, five months after the fire, the arsonists were identified as fourteen-year-old Timothy Perkins and a thirteen-year-old male. Both boys were in ninth grade at the time; neither lived at the apartment complex. Perkins’ grandmother told police she suspected her grandson and his friend were involved in the arson. Two of the boys’ friends also told authorities of Perkins’ history of starting fires.

Perkins confessed that he and his friend had set the fatal fire. He said they sneaked out of their homes in the middle of the night, became drunk, and randomly set fire to the apartment complex because they wanted to “scare somebody.” Perkins’ friend also admitted his involvement.

Tried as an adult, Perkins was convicted and sentenced to twelve years in prison in August 2004. His accomplice was sentenced to juvenile detention until age eighteen. Both culprits have served their sentences and been released. I could not find a picture of Timothy Perkins and, as far as I could tell, his accomplice was never publicly identified.

Authorities found no evidence suggesting the boys were connected to the threatening letter found by Donna at her bank five weeks earlier.

Culprits Caught

Although not targeted, Donna Baldeo became entwined in two crimes in a five-week span. The first incident spooked her; the second incident killed her and those she loved the most.

The writer of the letter found by Donna demanding the money from the Wells Fargo bank has never been identified.

Donna’s Traumas

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17718655/donna-deborah-baldeo

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17718686/jailall-lewis-baldeo

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17718704/bunnie-sue-terry

 

SOURCES:

• Brownsville Herald
• Galveston Daily News
• Houston Chronicle
• Plainview Herald
• Unsolved Mysteries