JNS BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Source Close To Murder Victim Annshalike Hamilton Says She Witnessed Remaro Smith's Violence Toward Sister Anne Marie...

Photos and blog post by John Hoff


"Jackie" (not her real name) was a female friend of the family of Annshalike Hamilton, the 15-year-old pregnant girl whose dead, frozen body was found in a slumlord's garage.

Hamilton's murder remains unsolved, however her mother June Leikas and (at last count) two other close friends of the family have both identified Remaro C. Smith as the person they suspect of murdering Hamilton. Remaro was the steady boyfriend of Anne Marie Leikas, who is the older sister of Annshalike Hamilton. Smith was reportedly very violent toward Anne Marie and had been living at the Leikas household at the time of Hamilton's disappearance.

Recently, I spoke to Jackie--who was in a position to observe plenty of things for a number of years. We talked at a fast food restaurant. Jackie showed me a bracelet she wears in memory of Annshalike, which she swears she will not remove until the day somebody is arrested and charged with Annshalike's murder. On the speed dial of Jackie's cell phone she has the homicide detective reportedly in charge of the Hamilton cold case: Anne Kjos.

Jackie has a...

...professional career and has known June's family for a number of years. She knew Annshalike since Annshalike was very small. In fact, she recently found a video of Annshalike Hamilton as a endearing little girl playing bingo with Annshalike's brother, Mike. The video was shot at a birthday party.

Jackie met the family of June Leikas through a mutual friend. Annshalike often came to Jackie's apartment along with her siblings, Mike and Anthony. (Anthony is known as "Boogie.") At the apartment they would go swimming at the apartment pool, have cookouts, and "do different things like that." Jackie has known the family since approximately 1998 or 1999. Jackie had a great affection for Annshalike and thought, "If anybody in that family is going to grow up to be somebody, it's going to be Annshalike. Her and Mike."

Remaro and Anne Marie moved into Jackie's apartment in 2005. At that time, Annshalike's brother Mike was charged with a DWI. While Mike was in jail, Anne Marie asked Jackie if she and Remaro could stay at Jackie's place. Before that, they had been staying with Remaro's mom, Mrs. Newman, (spelling unknown) and also with June Leikas. But the teenage couple had "basically burned their bridges" with both Newman and Leikas. So now they asked to come and stay with Jackie.

All of the facts as related below are according to Jackie. These allegations have not been proven.

So Anne Marie and Remaro arrived to stay for a while with Jackie and things were OK at first. But one day while Jackie was at work she received a phone call from Anne Marie, who announced "I'm leaving." Jackie asked, "Where are you going? What's wrong." Anne Marie said, "I can't talk about it. I'm just leaving." So Jackie said, well, please wait until I get home and we'll talk about this. When Jackie returned to her home, Anne Marie had a black eye from Remaro punching her.

Anne Marie reportedly said the punch happened in the alley. Jackie is not sure what they argued about, but she "sat them both down and talked to them like a psychiatrist or a marriage counselor." And things actually calmed down, or so it seemed. But a few days later, Anne Marie told Jackie about an incident where Remaro "choked her in the basement." Jackie hadn't known about this incident, and was disturbed by it.

Soon there was another physical incident after Anne Marie and Remaro had been arguing--again, who knows what it was about--but Jackie said, "Anne Marie, I'm not going to let him hurt you in my house."

So Jackie took Anne Marie into her own bedroom and said, “Just sit here.” Jackie thought Remaro would calm down and removing Anne Marie from the argument would help. It was not the first time Anne Marie had been invited into Jackie's room to get away from an argument. Jackie said, "When Anne Marie came into my room, there was a wall she would sit up against. She would just fold into a shell. It was horrible to watch."

This time Remaro followed her into Jackie's bedroom and "began freaking out" because, he said, Anne Marie had been "telling Jackie our business." Remaro then got on top of Anne Marie and began choking her, right in front of Jackie and Jackie's two young children.

Jackie says she will never forget her kids sitting on the bed screaming and crying in fear of this guy Remaro. Jackie thought she could pull Remaro off Anne Marie, so she took her fingernails and dug them into his throat, basically trying to tear him off like a crazed, vicious dog. Jackie tried to pull Remaro back by his neck, but that didn’t work either—the whole time Remaro was choking Anne Marie. So Jackie started punching Remaro. She may have hit him as many as ten times.

Jackie couldn’t get Remaro off and figured, at that point, she needed to protect her kids. So she called the police—right there from the bedroom, with the kids present—and Remaro was still battling with Anne Marie. The fight ended up in the other bedroom. Somehow Anne Marie got up and kept saying three words to Remaro: I love you. I love. Please, stop. I LOVE YOU.

So Remaro had Anne Marie in a fetal position, raining down punches on her. Finally—Jackie is not sure how exactly she managed to do it—she pretended like she was Remaro’s best friend. Jackie told him "it’s not worth it, Anne Marie is not worth all of this." Jackie put her arm around Remaro and said, “Let’s go out on the front step, cool off and talk.”

Somehow, Remaro wasn’t even aware the police were coming even though Jackie had called 911 in the same room, it was like he was possessed and could hear nothing around him while attacking Anne Marie.

So Jackie got Remaro out on the front steps and sat there with him for about five minutes, with Jackie finally saying, “I need to go in and check on my kids.” Remaro said, “OK,” and continued sitting where he was. Jackie got into the house and immediately shut the door behind her and locked it, locking Remaro out.

Once she locked him out, Remaro went around to the side of the house and broke out the window with some kind of object, maybe a rock or a small metal wheelchair ramp from the neighbor’s stairs, Jackie isn't sure which. Glass was flying into the bedroom where the fight had ended up.

Anne Marie was screaming, “Stop. Please stop. I love you.” Remaro broke the bottom portion of the window and tried to climb inside, but Jackie managed to pull down the sash portion of the window, locking it with Remaro's fingers underneath. Remaro managed to pull his hand out and came around to the front door. He tried to kick in the door, but the door held. The police arrived and both officers drew their guns on Remaro.

So Remaro went to jail. Jackie said there was supposed to be some kind of restitution paid for damaged, but restitution never came. Jackie figured it was "a lost cause" to squeeze money out of Remaro, so she never pursued it.

So Remaro was locked up, but Anne Marie would keep talking to Remaro over the phone without Jackie’s knowledge. Anne Marie ended up leaving before Remaro got out. She apparently went to live with Remaro’s family, but Jackie is not sure. It should be noted this incident Jackie is describing does not appear to show up on Remaro's online court records, click here for a link to that blog post.

Jackie has continued to hang out with June Leikas and her family. Jackie says that over the years she has seen Remaro hit Anne Marie "hundreds" of times. Punches. Full force punches. Or he chokes her. It doesn't matter where; in public, in front of other people, inside, outside.

"If he wants to hit her, he's going to do it, and nothing stops him," Jackie said. "Remaro is a sick man."

Anne Marie always has marks on her body, Jackie says, from the constant abuse. Though Remaro is reportedly very skinny--my source William called him a "Q-tip"--Anne Marie is even smaller.

"She's probably 70 pounds, soaking wet," Jackie says. Jackie passed along unconfirmed and unverified info that both Anne Marie and Remaro have health issues, based on medical paperwork that reportedly arrived at the Leikas house. If I get confirmation in the form of paperwork, I will consider printing this info after a long mulling of the legal and ethical issues involved. 

Jackie has very little doubt about who killed Annshalike. She figures Remaro just got violent with Annshalike the way he gets violent, all the time, with Anne Marie. She wants to see Remaro arrested on his outstanding warrants but, more importantly, she wants to see Remaro charged with murder.