My Brother Died, Does His Legacy Live? | KARAMO

So first of all, I wanna say I'm sorry for your brother's passing.

Thank you.

I'm sure it was hard.

Yes.

Do you mind sharing how he passed?

Yes, he was murdered in my home in 2017.

Wow. Mm-hmm. How close were you?

I had custody of him actually since he was a little boy. He was a troubled child, so he lived with me from some, He was in and out of trouble, like I said, but at the age of 22 when he passed, he was still living with me.

He was still living with you.

We have matching tattoos we actually got. Yeah. Yeah, my kids used to call him dad.

Aw.

Yeah, I can say honestly we were really close.

Yeah, got it, got it. Yeah. So when Tyra told you she was pregnant, what was your reaction?

I was excited. I really was. I was excited. I'm friends with Tyra. Me and her go back to high school. So I knew she wanted to have a baby and I was happy for her.

Yeah, of course, of course. Did you suspect something was going on between her and Dakota?

Oh, I knew something was.

You did? You seen anything?

Yes, so my brother confirmed, yeah, they definitely had a little thing going on.

Okay, got it.

Yeah, he did.

What made you start doubting Tyra's son then?

A couple things. Me and Tyra had hung out with a mutual friend of ours. These are actually friends of mine that I introduced to Tyra too. Was partying, you know, one night and it was a, we hooked her up with this guy that she liked, a Spanish guy that she liked. And you know, she hooked up with him that night. And that was the day before my brother died.

Okay.

Okay, the other thing is my god sister's Spanish. So that's how like she knew to translate. You know, yeah. So she actually was hanging around after the baby was born. She took the baby in Spanish around the guy's brother and the brother actually claimed explained the baby and was like, "Oh yeah, that's definitely my nephew." Oh wow. Yeah.

Okay.

Right, so I was like, "Okay." Yeah. But then the third thing that really got it to me was I've been to a psychic a few times. My brother's case is open, so I try to talk to him and try to get this solved. And I asked him while, and this is while Tyra was pregnant still, I had asked him, I said, "Is Tyra's baby yours?" The psychic said, "I don't know, something happened the day before he passed away." So I was like, how would she know something like that? Like, that was something, you know, like I didn't advertise to many people that we was partying, you know?

Yeah, the night before. Yeah.

And then my brother passing, I was, that really just threw everything. Yeah. You know, my concern was my brother.

Your brother, yeah. So you didn't have any concern for your brother.

So it wasn't nothing really to think about at the time.

I think it's interesting though that like the man that hooked up with that, his brother especially, Yeah. You know what I mean? Like say—

I didn't, like I said, that was my god sister and she kind of like was, she's the one that kind of like put me like, Ashley, like she showed me pictures of his kids.

They look alike?

I can't tell 'cause then like, it's like, and that's kind of why I wanted to get this done is because like I'm tired of the guessing. Like I see so many pictures of the baby. I'm fully involved, you know, in his life. So it's like I see pictures of him and I don't know if it's I wanna see my brother in him. You know, I do. I want him to be my brother's.

Of course.

You know, it's a hard burden to carry for so long.

Yeah, 'cause I'm sure the hardest part of this is that, you know, you do want your brother's legacy to live on.

Absolutely. I want him to be my brother's.

Yeah.

I do.

Makes sense. And so you said you're very involved in his life. You see the baby all the time?

He's actually currently stays with me, him and the mom.

Yeah. Oh wow.

They stay with me. I had the baby shower at my house. You know, his first Halloween, I did a little photo shoot for him. I help her with clothes. I mean, anything I can help her with. And just, and you know, and she's full-hearted, it's your brother's baby, you know? I just wanna know the truth, you know?

Well, how does the rest of your family feel? Do they think that it's your brother's baby?

They don't know. They're not really involved or anything. They just want the truth, you know?

Got it, makes sense. If the DNA test proves Dakota has a son, what's next?

Oh, there's so much. There's so much. I mean, she has an income. You know, my brother did work his life. You know, she has support to not be a single mom by herself. You know what I mean? Like, she has a whole family waiting for that baby to accept him and wants to. But we need to know the truth.

That's it. Well everyone, let's meet Tyra and hear her side of the story. So welcome Tyra to the show. Hi, Tyra, how are you doing?

Good.

Good, good, thanks for being here. So how do you feel about what you just heard?

Pretty much she's telling the truth. We grew up together, all of us. I was hanging out with him, I ended up having a baby. That's why it's probably like, it can, it cannot be. But everything she told you, it's on point, so.

So how do you feel about this whole paternity situation?

We're all here to get closure.

Got it.

Moving forward.

Moving forward. But in your mind, this is his son? Okay, great. How does it feel to know Ashley has doubts?

She, we all do. You know, from us partying, having blackouts and stuff like that, so it's kind of foggy, so I can't really tell y'all like what happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's making you emotional right now, love? What's making you emotional?

But we're all here, we're all here to be friends. We're not like drama with it.

Of course, yeah, there's no enemies. I can get a sense that this is more about like a family trying to get answers. Yes. This is not, you know, like, and every story's about a family getting answers, but I can tell you all are friends and this is, and you're also grieving right now. And even though this happened in 2017, I can see that this is still raw for you all.

Yeah, they've never even closed the case.

Yeah.

So.

So you never got closure for that.

We don't have justice for that. And then—

Makes sense. And so this is another piece of that. Yeah. Is my brother's legacy still here or not?

Yeah.

We understand that. So tell me about your relationship with Dakota.

She pretty much explained it all. We were all rumbling. We had a lot in common. We ride dirt bikes together, four-wheelers and stuff like that. You know what I mean? We hang, we work together. We spend a lot of time together.

Yeah.

Like I said, he does his thing. I'm not a stalker. You know how like, clingy. I'm not a clingy type person, so I just let him do whatever he had to do and I did me.

Yeah, got it. So, but there was a friendship there and it sounds like y'all were close 'cause of the friendship you two had.

Mm-hmm.

Got it, got it. So what promise did Dakota make to you and your son?

To be there for him, to give him guidance. He said, "I'm not here to be your dad. I'm here to be a good role model, to guide you in the right direction." Got it.

And explain the misunderstanding with the DNC.

I had a procedure done, I was pregnant with twins. And I had a procedure done and after the procedure was done, it was still saying I was pregnant. So that's where I had the confusion, you know, 3 months go later, still say I'm pregnant. So that's what was my doubts, you know what I mean? Because the boy, you know what I mean, it's like, so we was all drinking and partying and things happen. So that's where my doubts at too.

So what do you expect from Ashley's family after when you get the DNA results?

We all move forward. If it is, if it ain't, then we're still gonna be friends regardless.

If it's not, will the friendship continue?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's still going on right now.

Yeah. Without a doubt. Will you still provide the support?

Yes.

Yes, sir. Yes. I would never deny that. Still, he calls me Aunt Ashley.

Yeah.

I would never deny the baby.

Yeah. 'Cause you, 6 years you've been in his life. Yeah.

How could I?

Yeah, got it, got it. Well, I think it's time to unlock the DNA truth and get you all the answers you deserve. He is adorable though. That is adorable. Adorable. All right, well Tyra, this is your truth to open. So here you go.

You open it. You wanna see it, too? I don't want to.

Good girl. This is for you.

Here you go.

Thank you.

Read it.

They could, uh, sound a little creepy.

Read it out loud.

Wait, here, go ahead, do it.

You want me to read it?

You can read it.

Dakota's not your son's biological father. It's okay. It's the truth. We know the truth.

We know the truth.

But now we have closure.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm still there.

Yeah, you're still there.

I'm still there for him.

Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got it, you got it.

You take a seat for me. I'm actually happy that you all have closure. I know this is hard. I know you're a little bit in shock because even though you have doubts, you all have been growing a family. But what I do want you to know is that whether or not you know it, this is a moment that brought you all even closer and allowed you all to be together. And this is gonna be a grieving moment for this too for you. So I wanna prepare you for that because you've been hoping that maybe this was part of your brother and your family.

Okay.

You understand? So I need you to know that there's a grieving in this, all right? But know that even in this grieving, there's still love and support and family, okay?

Thank you.

To everyone at home, if you have any information regarding the death of Dakota Ullinger, please contact the Newcastle Police Department or report an anonymous tip to the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4-PA-TIPS or by visiting their website. I just wanna make sure that we give you all that, especially since the case is open. That there could be some extra support.

I appreciate that greatly.

Listen, friends, thank you for being with us and make sure to come back next time so we can keep talking and growing. I love you all.