He ran into daughter’s killer in Beaufort restaurant. 4 months later, dad killed himself

Barb Goodman didn’t need the coroner to tell her how her brother died.

She knew he hanged himself from a rafter in his attic using a white sheet with a blue floral pattern.

She knew it because it wasn’t his first attempt in recent weeks.

She also knew why.

Dann Slattery stopped playing the guitar after his 7-year-old daughter’s sexual assault and homicide.

But in the years before he died, he seemed, at least for a time, to be getting better, to be coming to terms with Kimi’s death.

“He said his tune was gone but he was playing again — he was coming back.”

That comeback stopped on New Year’s Day 2012, when Goodman and Slattery walked into a Beaufort restaurant .

Across the room sat Roy Dean White, the man who had been convicted in Kimi’s death. He was celebrating with his family.

White, who had been charged with homicide by child abuse in the death of Kimberly “Kimi” Slattery in 1999, spent 12 years in prison for the crime.

Neither Goodman nor Slattery knew White was out of prison nor did they know he could be released so soon.

“When we saw him, everything flooded back,” Goodman said. “We hadn’t forgot the past but (Dann) was married and happy. He was working and doing good.”

Within two weeks of seeing White, Dann’s wife left him, Goodman says.

Within a couple months, he lost his job.

Four months after seeing White that New Year’s Day, Dann died by his own hand.

“He went way down fast,” Goodman said. “He didn’t want to be here anymore. He would get to drinking and talking about how it wasn’t fair (that) Roy would get to see the sunrise and Kimberly couldn’t.”

For Goodman, all the emotion of the loss of her niece and brother recently flooded back when she opened an alert from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and saw White’s name.

The man she blames for the loss of two family members had been arrested once again.

“When I saw his name, my heart sank,” Goodman said. “I don’t ever want to meet another family Roy White did something to.”

A glimpse of a brief life

On one of the first chilly days of fall, Goodman sat in her car in Beaufort’s Kate Gleason Park and hugged the scrapbook that documents the life and death of her niece.

“I know it is mean and cruel and you are not supposed to hate people but I can’t not,” Goodman said, the pain showing in her eyes. “She was a baby.”

That pain remained as she flipped through the scrap book — a book Dann spent years meticulously piecing together.

It starts like that of any child born in the 1990s.

As a baby, Kimberly sits in a white high chair — her red hair the only color in the photo. Wearing a diaper and socks, she looks back at the camera with what seems an inquisitive stare.

No one then could have imaged this child’s violent end.

“She would be 28,” Goodman said. “She would have been something. She would be happily married and have a kid or be in college doing something great. She loved to read.”

A glimpse of that brief life can be seen in those pictures — her first snow, a beach day, a Halloween costume.

The pages turn to Kimi as a toddler, sitting on the family couch as Dann leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

In nearly all the photos, she looks back at the camera with a smile.

The pages are filled with other memorabilia — a picture and note Kimberly drew and wrote for Dann on his birthday.

An envelope holding locks of her hair.

For her family, her short life is held now between the cover of that memory book.

The last breath

Kimi took her last breath sometime on the evening of Feb. 22, 1998.

An autopsy report places the time of that last breath at approximately 8 p.m.

She wouldn’t be pronounced dead until about 11:55 p.m. at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

That night, her mother, Jennifer Slattery, left Kimberly in the care of White — her boyfriend at the time — to work a shift at Checkers restaurant, according to her statement to police and a time card found in the police investigation file.

She returned home to find Kimberly in her bed surrounded by her Little Mermaid pillows and blankets.

Blood was coming from her nose, foam from her mouth and her underwear was “soaked” in blood, a police report states.

Witness statements said rigor mortis had already set in.

There are some details of the case you can’t forget once you know them, Goodman said again and again during multiple conversations with The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

A formal photo of Dann, Jennifer and Kimberly looks similar to the ones many families had taken at department stores during the era. Jennifer and Kimberly wear their best dresses and Dann has on a tie. Kimi sits between them in front of a draped fabric background.

Kimberly looks back with a smile — her red dress matching her hair.

While the photo is like hundreds of others made by families then, it offers no clue to the future that is, fortunately, shared by few others.

Two of the three people in the picture are now buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

The third was sentenced to prison.

‘She’d still be succeeding’

As more pages are turned, the nature of the book changes.

Cards of condolences from the community appear.

A letter Dann and Jennifer wrote to the newspaper, thanking it for its support.

A poem Kimi’s second grade class at Shell Point Elementary wrote after her death.

The poem — “The Little Red Headed Girl” — is simply written but it is obvious how much it means to Goodman.

“We remember her laughing, running and reading. If she were still with us, she’d still be succeeding,” a line from the poem reads.

Some of Kimi’s classmates might today have a similar scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings of their accomplishments.

For Kimi — it is clips of memorials Barb and Dann placed in the newspaper remembering her birth and her death day each year.

‘Something not natural’

An autopsy report from 1998 found Kimi “died during an attack associated with sexual assault”.

It states the abuse likely was ongoing for “at least months”.

The autopsy report says her cause of death was likely “asphyxia such as smothering or chest compressions.”

As Goodman flips closer to the end of the book, she grew more serious.

“This is where it starts,” Goodman says.

The pages are now filled with newspaper articles.

Kimi’s death.

White’s arrest.

His plea.

Jennifer’s trial.

White was arrested the day after Kimi was found dead. He was initially charged with murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. As the result of a plea deal, the charges were changed to homicide by child abuse.

“The senseless, brutal, horrible death of this sweet little girl was a result of something not natural,” Beaufort County’s then-Coroner Curt Copeland told The Island Packet at the time of White’s arrest.

A letter Dann wrote to the judge during White’s bond hearing can be found pasted in the book among the other clippings.

“We are in the beginning stages of grief that will last us for the rest of our lives,” Dann writes in words that foreshadow his future. “It is inconceivable how a man could do this to a 7-year-old and expect to walk the streets of our community again.”

But White did walk those streets again.

And again.

He was released on a $50,000 bond by Circuit Court Judge Luke Brown. His mother’s house was used as a guarantee.

He was released 12-years later, mere days before Dann ran into him at the restaurant.

White was given a 25-year suspended sentence — meaning he would have to serve 15 years in prison. He was also sentenced to five-years probation.

Part of White’s plea included admitting that Jennifer knew he was a crack addict when she left Kimi alone with him.

He also stated Jennifer smoked crack with him every Friday.

Jennifer pleaded guilty to unlawful conduct toward a child.

She was sentenced to three years in prison and five years probation. She is now free.

‘He started with murder’

The harsh truth is hidden further inside the book — one that’s not pasted to the pages but tucked away in an envelope.

It is pictures of Kimi in her coffin.

Her eyes closed, face swollen. She wears a Girl Scout’s uniform. A stuffed animal, glass angel and a picture of her family have been carefully placed inside the coffin next to her body.

An obituary found on one of the pages is different from ones you will find for someone who lived a full life.

It doesn’t list where she went to college or the places she worked.

Her survivors are all much older than she was.

“She was on the Principal’s List for straight A’s,” the obit reads. “She received several reading and computer awards and was a Girl Scout in Troop #703.”

Goodman looks away as a reporter views the casket photos.

She doesn’t want to see the pictures but she wants people to know about them.

“There is an entire town that needs to be aware of this man,” Goodman said.

Because White’s sentence was changed to homicide by child abuse, he wasn’t required to register as a sex offender.

Last month, he was charged with burglary after Burton homeowners saw him inside their house, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office news release. It was reported he stole female’s clothing from the house.

He left a trail of the clothing and shoe impressions in the dirt that led to his nearby home.

If convicted, the burglary 1st degree charge carries a sentence of not less than 15 years and up to life in prison. As of Thursday, he remained in Beaufort County Detention Center on no bond, awaiting a yet-to-be-scheduled trial.

Goodman said typically people hear of offenders starting with smaller crimes that lead to more serious ones.

“He did not start with stealing clothes,” Goodman said. “He started with murder. He continues to destroy my family. I have to breathe a lot.

“At least I get to.”

‘He wanted to be with Kimberly’

There is a memory that Goodman replays in her head when she remembers Kimi.

“We had gone down to the (Beaufort) Water Festival and the kids were doing the macarena,” Goodman said. “The macarena (dance) was big at the time. She had it down.”

Kimi was bubbling with happy energy, Goodman said. She grew her red hair long so she could flip it — something she did often. There are photographs in the book to prove it.

Goodman holds on to these memories as a way of keeping Kimi close and thoughts of her killer far away.

Kimi’s killer received a “Truth in Sentencing” conviction.

That means he was required to serve 85 percent of the 15 years without an option for earlier parole.

It also means he would automatically be released after the 85 percent had been served if he maintained a good prison record.

No parole hearing is required.

Goodman says the family wasn’t aware he wouldn’t have a parole hearing. She said Dann always expected to be notified of a parole hearing. He planned to hold up the scrapbook and explain to the board why White shouldn’t be released before the full 15 years.

“We were supposed to be notified,” Goodman said. “We weren’t notified.”

Dexter Lee, spokesman for the SC Department of Corrections, said the department notified someone in the family about White’s release. He didn’t provide a specific name.

Victims or family of victims are notified by letter.

Goodman and Dann both moved since the case was over, Goodman said. It may have been difficult to locate them.

Victims are able to update their addresses through a registry, but Goodman said she wasn’t aware of that process.

Through the 85 percent program, White was set to be released from prison on Jan. 29, 2012. But he was released in December 2011, Lee said.

State code allows for prisoners who serve more than six months to be freed on the first day of their release month, in this case New Year’s Day 2012. Those rules are looser for holidays.

So he was instead released Dec. 30 — two days before Dann saw him in the Beaufort restaurant.

“He took two people from me,” Goodman said on that recent chilly day. The scrapbook lay closed.

Dann killed himself the Saturday before Easter.

“He wanted to be with Kimberly on Easter,” Goodman said.

“He thought, in his mind, they could be together again.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2018 at 5:00 AM with the headline "He ran into daughter’s killer in Beaufort restaurant. 4 months later, dad killed himself."