Grandparents Fight Over Jovan Belcher's Daughter

Zoey Belcher, 4 months, is worth $3M
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2013 8:50 AM CST
Grandparents Fight Over Jovan Belcher's Daughter
A funeral service pamphlet provided, Thursday Dec. 6, 2012, by the family of Kasandra Perkins shows a picture of Perkins holding her daughter Zoey on the front cover.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Perkins Family)

In a sad epilogue to the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide, both sets of grandparents are fighting over the baby girl orphaned when the NFL player killed her mother and then himself. Four-month-old Zoey Belcher will inherit almost $3 million in life insurance plus NFL annual payments and retirement funds. "Personally, I don't know why we would want to reward Jovan's—the murderer's—family with giving them the baby, but that's not a legal argument," says the lawyer for the family of Kasandra Perkins, Zoey's late mother.

Belcher's mother, Cheryl Shepherd, initially had custody of Zoey, but allowed Perkins' family to take her to Perkins' Texas funeral. That set of grandparents then cut off all contact with Belcher's family, Shepherd's lawyer says, but the lawyer for Perkins' family says Shepherd willingly left Zoey in Texas. Now Shepherd is suing for custody in Missouri while Perkins' family does the same in Texas, ABC News reports. (More Jovan Belcher stories.)

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