By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
cwootson@charlotteobserver.com

They called themselves The Fantastic Four - middle school girls at McClintock, who said they were more like sisters than friends.

On Thursday, three of the girls marched arm-in-arm, in honor of the fourth, Na'Jhae Parker, the eighth-grader found slain in her south Charlotte home earlier this week.

They were joined by more than 150 people - including dozens of other students at McClintock Middle School - who marched against domestic violence uptown, just days after what police called a horrific murder-suicide.

Police say Nateesha Chapman, 35, and two of her daughters - 13-year-old Na'Jhae, and Nakyiah Chapman, 13 months - were killed in mid-March by Nateesha's husband, Kenneth Chapman.

Police went to speak with Kenneth Chapman, 33, on Monday night at his apartment off Providence Road, after Nateesha's uncle called and said he couldn't reach her. When police arrived, they say, Chapman fired a gun at them, then killed himself.

Police say Chapman forced Na'Jhae's younger sister to continue to go to school like normal and to lie about her dead relatives' whereabouts.

Kori Roseboro said Thursday that she and Na'Jhae's other friends began to worry weeks ago.

"If she did miss a day of school, then she was on Facebook, and she wasn't on Facebook," Roseboro said. "I kept going to her house and her stepdad answered the door. The first time I went, he (said) her and her mom were at church."

Zack Roseboro, Kori's older brother, had grown accustomed to seeing Na'Jhae and her sister at his home.

"I didn't think it was right when Na'Jhae didn't come around for two weeks," he said. "That's just not Na'Jhae."

Also on Thursday, the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services said it received a complaint in September regarding the Chapmans, but decided not to open a case on the family.

The agency said Thursday that workers didn't take the case and provide protective services because the complaint "did not meet the legal definition of abuse, neglect or dependency," according to an agency spokesman.

The agency wouldn't say what the complaint was about. Since the grisly murder-suicide, DSS officials reviewed how the complaint was handled and believe "all procedures were followed," the spokesman said.

Following the murders, DSS filed a petition with Mecklenburg County Juvenile Court and obtained protective custody of the surviving children, ages 10 and 2.

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: 704-358-5046

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