Mother Connected to “40th and Lloyd” Incident Speaks Out

Selcy Perkins has been reunited with her teenage daughter after the girl was missing for three days earlier this week, but plenty of questions remain.

Her 13-year-old daughter was one of two that were believed to be spotted on Monday at a house at 2120 N. 40th St. A crowd gathered outside the triplex on Tuesday and after the police temporarily walked away from guarding the house that evening someone set fire to it. But Perkins said she was already reunited with her daughter at that point, with her and another missing teenage girl having been found 3.5 miles northeast of the 40th St. house after going missing on Sunday.

“My daughter said she walked a lot of places. She’s saying she’s been in this house, she’s saying she wasn’t in this house. She said she laid down, she woke up and now she’s saying she was never at this address,” said Perkins. “So to be honest with you I don’t know what is going on with this address, but what I do know is there are a lot of children and a lot of parents affiliated with missing parents at this same address. This address was not just pulled up out of the air.”

Perkins said her daughter told her she saw members of the Milwaukee Police Department 10 times while she was gone, and talked to them once.

“At the end of the day the only thing that matters to me is that my daughter is back home,” she said.

“The Milwaukee Police Department did not try to find my daughter and they did not find my daughter,” said Perkins. The daughter’s aunt Kim Perkins was called by an individual that saw the girls near N. 9th St. and W. Ring St., where they were ultimately found, on Tuesday afternoon.

Police Chief Alfonso Morales was critical of the family on Tuesday night. “We have not received the cooperation we expect from the family,” he said in a press conference. He described the scene that emerged as “chaos.”

Perkins said she was not there when things escalated, and was focused on finding her daughter.

She said her daughter is okay. “She’s been back home two days already and I’m still exhausted,” said Perkins.

Perkins addressed the media for approximately two minutes during a press conference held by Vaun Mayes‘ Community Task Force MKE organization before walking away.

“I am grateful for the people that actually did get out and look for my daughter,” she said.

Mayes said the situation is an example of the broken relationship between the police and the community. Mayes and activist Corey Kirkwood said the community attempted to provide information to the police department, but the police didn’t act on it.

“Search the house, actually do an investigation and you will find what we are talking about,” said Mayes.

But that’s no longer possible, as both the house and a van parked next to it were destroyed in a fire.

The police department, in a statement, said it searched the house both Monday and Tuesday, before it burned, and did not find any evidence that either of the girls were there.

“The preliminary investigation revealed that no information has been provided to MPD to suggest that the teenagers were at the residence that was set on fire or that any foul play occurred at that location,” wrote the department on Wednesday.

“MPD interviewed both teenagers who denied going to or being at the residence and denied meeting or knowing anyone who lived at that residence. There is also no evidence to substantiate that human trafficking occurred at that location.”

Mayes said there was evidence found by those that went into the house that many children were living there, but Mayes himself did not accompany those searching the place. “If they [the police] would have spoken to the neighbors the same way we did they would have known that these things were going on at this location,” said Mayes.

He expressed frustration that the department stepped away from the house, allowing people to ultimately start it on fire. “You were there, you could have stopped it,” he said of the police. He said he spent much of the day there and put out small fires.

But Mayes and Kim Perkins both said the house is just one of many in the area that have kids coming and going. Mayes said two other boys were found at another house nearby that neighbors told the group to check.

Mayes said additional parents and families would be coming forward to tell stories about the N. 40th St. home. “People come and tell us stuff that they wouldn’t tell the police,” he said.