Patricia ‘Pat’ McCollum College Hill foster mom & her two adoptive kids, DJ McCollum and Kaydence McCollum stabbed to death by Anthony Mathis, her Cincinnati, Ohio area son in law and who previously strangled and had domestic violence charges against the foster parent only for charges to be dropped.
Four people have been left dead, including the alleged suspect following a stabbing rampage on Friday that led to the deaths of a much loved Cincinnati area foster mom, her two adopted children and a 66 year old suspect who died from self inflicted injuries following a stand-off.
Pat McCollum, 77, was found dead alongside her adopted son DJ McCollum, 32, and adopted daughter, Kaydence McCollum, 11, in the College Hill area of the city in a suspected murder-suicide.
Triple homicides and suicide
Notice of the calamity came after police received multiple calls from concerned neighbors.
By the time police officers arrived, just on 8am, Thursday morning, suspect Anthony Mathis, 66, had retreated deep inside the house – still armed with a knife.
It led to a SWAT team being summoned but they were stalled by Mathis and were forced to negotiate with him for several hours before they were able to get inside the home.
Mathis was found with self-inflicted knife wounds, while the McCollum’s had died from stab wounds. Mathis was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center but later died from his own injuries.
Hamilton County’s Coroner Office reported Mathis’s death as suicide while the other deaths are being treated as homicides.
Anthony Matthis Cincinnati area man career criminal felon
Investigators have not said what led to the fatal stabbings but court records cited by Cincinnati.com revealed Mathis was charged with felony strangulation in an alleged incident involving Patricia of April, 2023.
The criminal complaint also stated Mathis being McCollum’s son in law. The charges of domestic violence and strangulation in the case were dismissed, WLWT reported.
Mathis prior to 2023 had prior felony arrests and had served stints in prison for a slew of crimes including aggravated assault, multiple instances of domestic violence, including aggravating and menacing charges, having previously pulled guns and machete on men.
Addressing the tragedy, Cincinnati Police Chief, Teresa A. Theetge, told reporters, ‘If you know someone who has mental health issues, or substance abuse issues, this city is rich with resources to help those individuals. We would rather get them help than respond to such a scene at this, because nobody got them help.’
News of the multiple stabbings left locals shocked and searching for answers.
‘Never dreamed of anything like this happening at all,’ neighbor Diana Turnbow told WLWT. ‘We just heard individuals yelling stop, come back, don’t run, things of that sort and that’s all we heard.’
DJ had been adopted by Pat McCollum when he was young child, at the age of seven.
He was severely disabled while still a baby after an older child dropped a lit match into his crib. He was left with burns across 85 percent of his body, lost all of his limbs and was wheelchair bound.
McCollum adopted him at the age of 10 in 2002 and persisted with his recovery. Eventually she was able to see DJ walk on prosthetic legs and graduate from Woodward High School.
There was such a strong bond between her and DJ that during an interview in 2012, said she expected him to live with her for the rest of her life.
‘Either I die first, or he does. I will never separate from him,’ she said.
McCollum over the years had become a beacon of admiration and leadership in the community, with the foster parent having fostered more than 70 children over a period of 20 years.
Patricia McCollum College Hill foster mom remembered and much adored
McCollum, a longstanding member of New Jerusalem Baptist Church, specialized in caring for children with special needs. She adopted at least four children in the more than two decades for which she had been a foster parent.
Such was the experience she had gained looking after children she went on to teach at college where she would train new foster parents.
She herself attained a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from the University of Cincinnati.
McCollum, who never married, had fostered more than 70 children over the course of two decades and adopted at least four.
‘She was a great mother and good to children,’ Rev. Damon Lynch Jr. of the New Jerusalem Baptism Church told The Enquirer, noting how she would often arrive with several children along side her.
Other members of the community praised McCollum for what she did.
‘Very enlightening person. Willing to help younger people to progress,’ said neighbor Thomas Blair. ‘She was a mentor, she was my Godmother, she was my friend.’
‘Ms. Pat truly impacted so many lives; advocating and caring for hundreds of children in foster care, adopting, loving and continuing to love and support those children and their families after they went back home,’ wrote Amy Marie on Facebook.
Patricia McCollum was a founding board member of Rosemary’s Babies Company, an organization that supports teen parents.
Rosemary Oglesby-Henry, the founder, confirmed that DJ and Kaydence were McCollum’s adopted children.
‘How much of a pain is it that she would lead this life in a way where she would save people in situations like this and help people and help people heal from situations like this,’ Oglesby-Henry said.
McCollum was also a licensed social worker, foster parent, and had run for Cincinnati City Council.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for the burials of the three victims.
‘Memaw, Pat for the People, Patricia McCollum, social worker, Guardian Ad Litem, advocate, trauma trainer for both City and state, and a trainer of foster parents,’ a tribute to the foster mom read.
‘She was a friend, a former teen mom, the first black playboy bunny in Cincinnati; She was a hero. She advocated for foster youth, trauma victims, the disabled, and teen parents by being a founding board member of Rosemary’s Babies Co.
‘She was the President of The Black Social Workers and a member of POCWA. She helped to license 1,000s of foster parents.
‘She lived her life serving and loving; this is her LEGACY. She leaves this life, less than a week from her 78th birthday.’
