UPPER DARBY – The township man sought by police in connection with his girlfriend’s death last week is behind bars in Florida after turning up at a Jacksonville police station in the dead woman’s car.
Deschae Lowry, 38, of the 7000 block of Emerson Avenue, is being held on charges of driving under the influence in Jacksonville, Fla.
According to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood, Lowry drove up to the police station in Florida covered in blood Sunday morning.
Lowry’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Masako Griffin, 38, was found dead in the couple’s home Sunday morning. Griffin’s sister had called police after not hearing from her for several days. On Monday, an autopsy showed Griffin had been strangled to death.
Chitwood said Upper Darby police are investigating Lowry for the murder.
‘On Sunday morning, Griffin’s body was discovered,’ Chitwood said on Tuesday. ‘Almost simultaneously as police are walking into the house and find the body, we get a call from Jacksonville, Fla., saying that they have a guy who walked into the police station. He identifies himself as Deschae Lowry.’
Lowry had driven Griffin’s 2014 Dodge Avenger to Florida, Chitwood said, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office reported Lowry was covered in blood when he drove into the police station parking lot.
‘He was bleeding pretty significantly from the wrist,’ Chitwood said. ‘He told officers in Jacksonville, and this is a quote, ‘My wife died on Friday … I found my wife dead on Friday … I took pills and cut myself.” Lowry had been living on the street or in homeless shelters for some time, and Griffin periodically allowed him to shower and have meals at the Emerson Avenue home.
A police report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said Lowry pulled into the parking lot at about 7:28 a.m. Sunday and stumbled as he got out of the car. The report said Lowry had glassy, bloodshot eyes and he allegedly told an officer that he had taken an unknown amount of an unknown prescription narcotic. Lowry was swaying back and forth as he talked with police, and also needed assistance to walk.
Chitwood said his detectives had not yet identified Griffin’s boyfriend as a suspect at that time, as the woman’s body had been discovered in a second-floor bedroom of her home just minutes before the call from Florida.
Lowry was taken to a hospital for treatment of his wounds and for mental health observation.
Two Upper Darby detectives flew to Jacksonville on Monday, Chitwood said, and were able to obtain a search warrant for Griffin’s car. Lowry declined to speak to the detectives when he was released from the hospital Monday night.
Lowry is being held on DUI charges in Jacksonville, and Upper Darby police have filed a detainer to keep him in jail on a July 31 violation of an active protection from abuse order obtained by Griffin. Upper Darby police have also charged him with theft for taking Griffin’s car.
The measures are aimed at keeping him behind bars until he can be brought back to Upper Darby, Chitwood said.
‘He is either going to come back (to Pennsylvania) voluntarily or we’re going to extradite him,’ he said.
Extradition proceedings could take months, he said.
Griffin’s sister is relieved that Lowry is in police custody and hopes that he is brought to justice.
‘From my perspective, I’m glad that he is in custody,’ said Alista Stevenson. ‘Whatever steps they need to take to get him for the (alleged) murder, I’m fine with that.’
Stevenson described the 15-year relationship between Griffin and Lowry, saying that it was violent from the beginning and continued to trouble Griffin’s family members.
‘It’s just been an ongoing relationship of emotional, physical and even financial abuse,’ she said. Stevenson described an incident early in the relationship where Lowry allegedly held Griffin at gunpoint for several hours. Lowry’s alleged abuse also caused Griffin to lose a job, when he showed up and caused a commotion.
Griffin had an alarm system installed in her home last spring after a particularly disturbing incident in which Lowry allegedly broke into the house and slashed Griffin’s clothing and vandalized her car. Griffin was away on a church choir trip at the time, which angered Lowry, Stevenson said.
In 2008, Lowry was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault after he stabbed Griffin’s teenaged son in Darby Borough. Griffin’s son, now 22, confronted Lowry with a group of five other teens about his abuse of Griffin, Stevenson said. None of the boys were armed, but Lowry grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed Griffin’s son in the chest. The charges were subsequently dismissed.
Thursday night, the night before she was allegedly murdered, Griffin, along with her mother, had driven Lowry to a men’s shelter in Philadelphia and dropped him off. The last Stevenson heard from her sister, who was supposed to spend Friday night at Stevenson’s Northeast Philadelphia home before leaving on a trip to Carlisle, Pa., was late Thursday.
Stevenson said she didn’t hear from Griffin all day Friday, and thought that her travel plans had changed. By Saturday, panic had begun to set it for Griffin’s family.
‘A majority of us were aware of the relationship and how violent it was,’ Stevenson said. ‘Saturday came and I was concerned and upset. I was frantically calling our mom.’
The lack of communication was worrisome for Stevenson because she and her sister talked just about daily.
‘We talk almost every day,’ Stevenson said. ‘Not to hear from her one day, I was fine with it.’
On Saturday, Stevenson drove past Griffin’s home and didn’t see her car, and thought she had adjusted her travel plans. By Sunday, she decided she needed to let herself into the home. She contacted Upper Darby police to accompany her to the house.
‘I let the police officers into the house and went to disable the alarm system,’ Stevenson said. ‘I noticed that it wasn’t activated. Just then, they said, ‘We found her.’ That’s how I knew my sister was dead.’
A relative saw Griffin’s body laying on her bedroom floor in a white nightgown.
‘I’m still processing that I’m never going to see her again and I’m not going to hear her voice again,’ she said.
Looking back on the relationship between Griffin and Lowry, Stevenson said she believes her sister thought she could help Lowry.
‘She just felt like she had to be responsible and help him be a better person, I guess,’ Stevenson said. That feeling may have caused Griffin to minimize the abuse she was receiving, Stevenson said.
As recently as six weeks ago, Stevenson said she had a candid discussion with Griffin about the relationship, and she felt Griffin was more open to the talk than she had been previously.
‘But here we are a month and a half later and I don’t have my sister,’ she said.
Griffin leaves behind a 22-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter. Stevenson is caring for the girl, and tried to keep the truth about her mother’s death from her for as long as she could. Stevenson’s two young children and Griffin’s daughter learned what happened Tuesday.
‘It’s difficult because (Tuesday afternoon), she went to the library and read about it online,’ Stevenson said of her niece. ‘They went on the Internet because they wanted to know.’
Throughout the tumultuous years of Griffin’s ties to Lowry, Stevenson said she thought about walking away from her sister.
‘I wanted to cut her off,’ she said. ‘But I couldn’t. She is my sister … We never gave up on her.’
Griffin’s funeral arrangements are pending.