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Todd sisters pray for justice | The Unsolved

Juanita Todd's daughters are on a decades-long mission to find their mother's killer.

Stacy Lange

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Published: 11:34 PM EDT May 25, 2023
Updated: 11:34 PM EDT May 25, 2023

If your life story started like Odetta and Tamu Todd's did, it may be hard to go on to live a life of faith.

The two women, now in their 50s, were raised by their grandparents after their mother's murder in 1972. 

Juanita Todd was found in her apartment on Academy Street in Wilkes-Barre with 22 stab wounds. She had been dead for hours. Odetta, 18 months old, and Tamu, 5 months old, were in the room.

Still, somehow, the sisters found faith.

"My grandfather taught my sister and I how to pray. We didn't know. In 1978 when all of this was going on, he came into our room at night with this little black bible and taught us The Lord's Prayer. That was 1978, and from that night, I always prayed for justice. I always prayed. Even when we said grace, I'd say, 'Lord, help my mom, save my mom.' Whenever I could get it in, I'd get it in," Odetta said.

So, it only made sense that when Action 16 met Odetta, Tamu, and their family and friends in a hotel conference room near Wilkes-Barre, they started in prayer.

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