MCKEESPORT, Pa. — “Awful, awful.”
That’s how Laura Dallas feels this week, having to look at the two men accused of strangling her daughter, Tameka Dallas.
“I think about her every day. There’s not a day you don’t wake up where you don’t think about your daughter. She should still be here,” Laura Dallas told Channel 11.
Daron Parks and Romanta Yancey are charged in Tameka’s death. Police say they stole her car, strangled her, then dumped her body in Renzie Park in McKeesport in 2019.
Channel 11 was there when detectives found her body.
Laura said that she had just bought her daughter the car that the men are accused of stealing.
“I can’t explain what I feel. I had just got her that car. So I feel some guilt,” she said.
During day two of the trial, several Allegheny County detectives testified that license plate readers played a significant role in their investigation. Through tracking the car, they could pinpoint that the two men took the vehicle through Bridgeville, Heidelberg and North Versailles.
Parks and Yancey were eventually arrested.
“It’s like closure. I want to make sure these guys get what they deserve. So we can all get back to normal ... which actually won’t ever happen. But the goal is for them to get what they deserve.”
She hopes that the two men never walk free again.
“I hope you go to jail for the rest of your life, for taking my daughter’s life,” she said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
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