Jacksonville mother accused of killing 11-year-old acted strangely, neighbor says

A neighbor tells only Action News Jax the local woman charged with concealing her 11-year-old daughter's death was acting strangely in the days leading up to her arrest.

That man did not want to be identified.

“There came a point where we became uncomfortable with letting our daughter go down there with how [Erica Newsome] was acting,” he said.

That neighbor said it all started when Newsome pulled her daughter, Kaye-lea Plummer, out of school a few months ago.

“Nobody really saw them after she pulled her daughter out of school,” he said.  “One day she was around, and the next she wasn't.”

He said Newsome’s home on Jake Road, which is now the focus of investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, was where he observed her bizarre behavior.

“She always parked the car around the back side of the house, never in the front,” he said.  “Never used the front door, was never really out during the day, she always was out at night.”

This father is still coming to grips with it all, and is harboring some guilt.

“There was definitely something that was going on mentally with her,” he said.  “I believe that maybe if somebody reached out, this could've been prevented.”

Cox Media Group