Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Kidnapped Mom Was Taken From Subway Station by Married Couple, Police Say

By  Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska and Gustavo Solis | December 9, 2013 6:41am 

 Sheryl Outerbridge died after being abducted and beaten in Jamaica on Dec. 3, 2013.
Sheryl Outerbridge died after being abducted and beaten in Jamaica on Dec. 3, 2013.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Gustavo Solis/Facebook

QUEENS — The Harlem mother of three who died after being kidnapped and beaten in Jamaica was burned with a cigarette and beaten with a rod by her captors — her boyfriend and his wife — sources and neighbors said.

Sheryl Outerbridge, 38, stayed for weeks at a time with the couple — Devonnee Wilkerson, 32, who was arrested Wednesday, and her husband, Malik Wilkerson, 33, who police said they're looking for — in their apartment on 116th Road in South Jamaica, police sources and neighbors said.

Malik Wilkerson abused Outerbridge for two years, she told former roommate Destiny Hart, 18, who lived with her for four months in Harlem, she said.

"She told me her boyfriend broke her jaw," she said. "She was scared of him."

Last Monday night, Outerbridge left the couple’s apartment and headed to the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue subway station. The pair abducted her there and took her back to the apartment, according to the criminal complaint.

At the apartment, the couple struck the victim repeatedly in the head and body with their fists and a paint roller, the complaint says.

The pair then threw a glass bottle at her, which shattered on her forehead, and burned her thigh with a lit cigarette, the complaint says.

About 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, the couple and another man took Outerbridge in a livery cab to Jamaica Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Outerbridge’s injuries were so severe police thought she had been shot in the head, police sources said.

Devonnee Wilkerson stayed at the hospital, while both men left, authorities said.

Wilkerson told police the other man was her brother, but the authorities said they appear not to be related, authorities said.

Initially, Wilkerson told investigators she and her husband had found Outerbridge injured in the street on Sutphin Boulevard, a few of blocks from where the couple lives, but police believed she was lying.

Wilkerson was charged with kidnapping resulting in a death, plus assault with the intent of causing physical injury with a weapon, police said. Her lawyer was not immediately available for comment.