Mother of 1996 Murder Victim Shaquita Bell Diagnosed With Cancer

The mother of a murder victim has been fighting for justice for her daughter for nearly two decades -- and now she's fighting for her life.

Jackie Winborne, the mother of Shaquita Bell, recently was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, PeComa. She was told there is no treatment, but she's not giving up.

"I fought for 16 years to find out what happened to my daughter, why wouldn't I fight for myself?" she told News4 on Friday.

Bell disappeared in June 1996 from outside a relative's home in Alexandria, Virginia. She was 23. 

Convinced that Bell's ex-boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, had killed her, Winborne and her husband, Thomas, dug with their own garden shovels in places they thought their daughter's body may have been buried.

Dickerson pleaded guilty to the murder and was convicted in 2008, in only the third prosecution in D.C. history in which the victim's body never was found.

When a friend of Winborne's heard she had cancer, she set up an online fundraiser to help cover the costs of experimental treatment.

Local

Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information

GMU cricket stadium proposal scrapped

Nationals place Stephen Strasburg on 60-day injured list

The life of that friend, Alexandria teacher Ruth Brannigan, had been touched by tragedy, too. In 2000, one of her students, 8-year-old Kevin Shifflett, was stabbed 18 times as he played outside his great-grandmother's home.

Brannigan said she still remembers when one of her classmates called her after the shocking murder -- the caller was Shaquita Bell's daughter, Ashley, who Winborne was raising.

"When he was struck, Ashley was the first one to call me, bless her little baby heart, in third grade," Brannigan said.

The women stayed close, and Brannigan leaped to help her friend when she was diagnosed with cancer.

"Just the opportunity, to have what so many other people with money have -- it just struck me as wrong," she said.

Winborne said she's well aware the odds are against her, but she has a long history of not giving up in the face of what people say is impossible.

Anyone who wishes to help Winborne pay for medical care can visit a GoFundMe page set up to benefit her.

Contact Us