Palm Beach Post (Florida)
March 17, 2008 Monday
FINAL EDITION
VICTIM’S MOTHER GOT NO WARNING BEFORE SHOOTINGS

BYLINE: By ALEJANDRA CANCINO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B

LENGTH: 451 words

A day after losing her daughter, Jocelyne Willard said she is scared, her heart is in pain and she is alone.

Willard’s 34-year-old daughter, Judith Rose Willard, was shot to death Saturday morning on the steps of her condo in the 7700 block of Lago del Mar Drive in suburban Boca Raton. Also dead is the daughter’s husband, 30-year-old Theodore L. Harris.

Deputies say it appears the couple were estranged. An argument ensued after Harris showed up at the condo, and shots were fired.

Jocelyne Willard, 60, said Sunday that she was in the condo with her grandchildren — Holly, 10, and Jaden, 3 — about 8:30 a.m. Saturday when she heard three gunshots. Then she heard people talking. Then Holly screamed: “The police is here!”

Willard was confused. “Why are they in the house?” she asked herself.

Willard, Holly and Jaden were taken to the back yard. She didn’t understand why deputies were asking so many questions.

No, her Judith Rose was not in the house. She had to be at work at 9 a.m.

Judith Rose Willard had separated from her husband two months ago. The mother didn’t know why. She knew Teddy Harris loved her daughter. He would come to the house on weekends to take his children to the pool and to get ice cream.

Deputies kept asking personal questions. Then Willard knew. The shots. Judith Rose was not coming back.

It’s hard to believe it happened, she said. “There were no screams, no yelling, no talking — just gunshots.”

Willard said Judith Rose and Teddy met while they worked at a restaurant in Miami. They married in 1997, but soon after he had an affair and she left him. He moved to Gainesville; she stayed in Miami.

Both ran into trouble with the law. He was arrested for drug possession twice in 1998, once for cocaine and heroin possession and once for bouncing a check.

Willard said her daughter was doing cocaine and crystal meth around that time.

Later, her daughter earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She wanted to be a psychologist but gave up to be a mother and take care of her children. Judith Rose stopped using drugs when she realized she was pregnant with Holly, Willard said.

Willard said she never thought her daughter would die before she did. “I didn’t think anything like this would happen.”

Willard recently moved from Miami to be close to her daughter and baby-sit the grandchildren while Judith Rose went to work.

Now she is alone in a place she barely knows. She doesn’t know what will happen to her grandchildren. Right now they are with Willard’s sister. She is sure of one thing: she will keep Judith Rose and Teddy in her prayers.

“I’ll be praying for them both this Easter,” she said.

Staff researcher Sammy Alzofon contributed to this story.

~alejandra_cancino@pbpost.com