The Queena Phu Story: Beaten and Left for Dead At a Library
[Bloomingdale, FL]
Queena Phu (18) brought a type of energy to a room that was well-loved and well-received by many. It may seem impossible to be happy all of the time, but Queena’s attitude came close to it. She was always laughing, smiling, and ridding herself of worries that would ruin her spark. Her love for people branched off into volunteering with special needs children and hospice patients. While some people may have taken those opportunities to gain popularity, Queena participated simply because it fulfilled something within her heart.
In June of 2007, Queena and her friend, Rachel Sultenfuss, heard about the violent sexual assault of a local daycare worker. Although Queena was already very responsible and kept in contact with her circle, she became extra cautious after that situation. Queena and Rachel decided it would be smart if they exchanged their family’s phone numbers with each other in case of an emergency.
On April 24th, 2008, Queena finished up her shift at Abercrombie and Fitch and called Rachel as she headed to the library to drop off some books. When she pulled into the parking lot, she expressed to her friend that an odd guy was sitting on a bench nearby. “Make sure you stay on the phone with me”, Queena said.
The books were placed in the back of her car, therefore she had to exit her vehicle to retrieve all of them. The door chime began to beep, alerting Rachel that she had opened her car door and gotten out. Within seconds, Rachel heard a loud scream on the other end of the line followed by the phone hanging up. Although she attempted to call back, she was only greeted with Queena’s voicemail.
Rachel called a mutual friend that lived closer to the library to check on the situation. As the friend headed toward the location, Rachel remembered that she had Queena’s mother’s phone number, and called her. After the phone call with Rachel, Queena’s mother, Vanna, called her other daughter, Anna, to inform her about the circumstances that were unfolding. It took 30 minutes for the mutual friend to officially make it to the library and stumble upon Queena’s car. Her door was still open with the car running. Her phone was broken in pieces on the ground and there were blood droplets splattered on the concrete.
In a panic, the mutual friend called police and they quickly arrived in an attempt to locate Queena. At this time, Queena’s mother and sister also raced to the scene, trying to stay as calm as possible before they faced the unknown. As authorities scanned the area, they noticed a shape behind the library. It was Queena’s badly beaten body sprawled in the grass with hundreds of ant bites. In addition to being horribly attacked, she was also brutally raped. Beside her was an odd piece of evidence, a Wendy’s utensil, ultimately taken for fingerprint analysis.
Her condition was deemed very critical, but she was alive. In a quick attempt to save her life, she was airlifted to the hospital as 13 doctors waited by the doors at the closest hospital. After hours of treatment, Queena fell into her first coma. The day after, she managed to regain consciousness and utter a few questions. “What happened to me?” “Why can’t I see?” “Did they find him?” Among all her injuries, she was determined to still attend her upcoming prom too.
That night, Queena’s condition took a turn for the worse as she seized. Doctors performed emergency brain surgery to reduce the constant swelling and placed her in a medically induced coma. At the same time, police gained a tip from a citizen saying he recognized the “odd guy” sitting on the bench at the library because he visited the library an hour before the attack. The tipster explained that he actually knew the person as high school sophomore, Kendrick Morris (16). His background check uncovered a cruelty to animals charge.
The next day, investigators stopped by the library to interview a few employees when Kendrick Morris randomly walked inside to use the computer. After compiling fingerprint evidence against him with the Wendy’s utensil and DNA evidence from a rape kit, Kendrick Morris was determined to be the correct suspect. Not only was he Queena’s attacker, but he was also the daycare worker’s attacker.
More than three weeks after her attack, Queena emerged from her coma in a permanent vegetative state. She wasn’t able to walk, talk, feed herself, or even make eye contact, yet she still managed to hold onto two important things: her laugh and her smile. Despite this sad outcome, her family refused to accept the idea that she would spend the rest of her life inside a nursing home. Her family takes thorough care of her each day and soaks in each moment they still have with her.
“Right now we are happy with what we have and every small improvement, we thank God for that”, her mother Vanna explained.
They now run a website for her called Join Queena where they give updates on her, blog certain topics, and have an option for donations. There is also a very heart wrenching, emotional book about Queena’s experience called, The Life She Once Knew: The Incredible True Story of Queena, The Bloomingdale Library Attack Survivor. It is written by her mother.
Kendrick Morris was sentenced to two concurrent 65 year sentences for his attacks and rapes against Queena and the daycare worker. Due to changes in state and federal law, Kendrick Morris was able to request a re-sentencing in 2017, but the outcome was not any shorter for him. Instead, he was given life in prison with the possibility of parole.
And in the end, Queena got her amazing prom experience she so badly wanted. She had the beautiful dress and listened to the funky music while exuding a beautiful smile, but it still wasn’t in the true manner she was meant to have during the year of 2008.
