You can listen to episode twelve of “Aren’t You the Girl?” podcast here:
Posted is the transcript for the episode for those who would like to read Vicky’s story instead.
Sources used in this episode are listed at the end of this post.
Thank you to her children and to Rahyn Hollywood and VG for providing their music to play throughout the episode.
Their music tells the story of their mother Vicky better than I ever could.
Music used:
Grey Varsity, Wat a Time to be Alive, Chicago Concrete Rose: by Rahyn Hollywood
[Story of our Lives] Be at Peace Momma, Back on That Bt: by VG
In October of 1994, the body of 25 year old Victoria Morris was found in Wright County, Minnesota.
The second body to be found in Wright County within a year; and the tenth victim to be lumped into a group of women who were found violently murdered around the Twin Cities.
Why didn’t Victoria receive any media attention?
In this episode of “Aren’t You the Girl?” I’ll be covering the life of Victoria Morris and the legacy her children continue on for her today.
I started to publicly research piece by piece the story of Victoria the past year. The biggest mystery to me when it comes to cases I covered so far.
I covered her murder in episode 4: Victoria Morris and the crimes of Timothy Crosby and in episode 10: Victoria Morris and the crimes of Gregory Clepper.
Representing a lost figure in a Wright County, Minnesota predator’s story and also in a Chicago’s Southside Slayers story.
My goal with this podcast is to keep as much light on the victim as possible, keeping each episode individual to the victim. A place to disconnect from the predators or murderers. But I was never able to uncover anything in regards to Victoria.
Not even her photo.
Unfortunately, I had to connect her to those two men to try to bump her case up and scream towards those men’s researchers to include Victoria.
Remember Victoria.
But, who was she?
Not her criminal record, mugshot photo or crime scene details. But who was she in life?
I did a presentation with Jerry Ayres and SIMinnesota in Wright County in March of 2025, who I mentioned in my previous episode about Martha Bacon, and shared my goal of finding out more about her.
I just couldn’t find her family, yet.
Finally, I found someone connected to Victoria late one night and when I went to message them – I see they had already requested to message me back in September of 2024.
They wanted to share what they know of Victoria and the investigation from Victoria’s family side.
Story of my life – I was searching so hard for something that was right in front of me.
But I was ready.
At the beginning of my journey, I was working with information that Victoria had only one child but I learned that she was actually a mother of five.
She also liked to be called Vicky which I’ll be using to refer to her from now on.
When I began my podcast, I had mixed feelings on if I should reach out to the family and dig for more information. I didn’t want to jump into the lives of anyone by surprise and traumatize someone if they weren’t in a place to be contacted. And really, it’s none of my business to keep digging.
But something kept bringing me back to Victoria.
I wanted at least a picture of her to use and risk her family being upset with me.
All of her children are very gifted when it comes to music and that’s something they learned from her, I discovered.
I found her children have moved through life using music as their outlet. And they are all extremely talented.
Vicky has an absolutely beautiful family and lots of grandkids today.
The life of Vicky is almost as mysterious as her unsolved death.
Her children don’t know a lot about their mom.
Vicky’s immediate family didn’t tell them much about her. From their perspective, it’s something that’s not talked about. And is difficult for their family to go into depth about.
Vicky seems to be a lost figure in every sense – no law enforcement attention, nothing from our community, no media, no photos, no memorial.
Her children definitely feel the aftereffects of that.
Though they all have crafted great lives and families for themselves, and always try to progress forward, they want to know about their mother – in life and death.
Born Victoria Marie Morris on May 5th, 1969. She grew up and lived most of her life in Chicago.
Vicky was kicked out of the home for unknown reasons at a pretty young age – her early teen years. From what is understood, she had a troubled relationship with her mother but no one knows exactly the reason why.
Vicky had her first son Japierre in June of 1987. She had just turned eighteen years old.
She then had her next baby boy, Sovajie in July of 1988.
Vicky didn’t maintain a close relationship with the fathers of her boys. It was on Vicky for the most part to raise them.
Vicky soon met a man named James Dukes and they quickly fell in love. When she grew pregnant with her third child, James took in Vicky and her two boys as his own.
She gave birth to her first baby girl, Najia in January of 1990.
Vicky and James also got married in 1990.
Vicky moved from Chicago to the Twin Cities with her babies to start a new life and welcomed another son, Deamond, both in October of 1992.
To keep the timeline clear, Vicky moved from Chicago to Minneapolis in October of 1992 – maybe a few months earlier but we think it was in October.
She would be found dead exactly within two years.
No one is quite sure why Vicky moved herself and her children to Minneapolis but in one article while Vicky was alive she stated she was going to school here.
Her children believe that she was in search of something better and a fresh start somewhere new.
In January 1993, a fire started around 11:30 a.m. in the back bedroom of Vicky’s apartment in a fourplex.
She was asleep in her first floor bedroom when the fire broke out. Her two month old baby had kept her up most of the night so Vicky took a nap with him and her 3 year old daughter in her room.
Her two older boys were watching tv but then decided to play with the stove that was lit to help keep the apartment warm.
They would light paper on fire and throw it under their bed – looked cool like fireballs to the 4 and 5 year old. They did this twice before the bed lit on fire.
They tried spitting and throwing water on the fire but it had spread.
They got scared and ran into Vicky’s bedroom to wake her up.
He told her that they had lit a fire and that the house was burning.
Vicky rose from the bed, panicked and started screaming at the boys,
“What have you done?”
She tried to use the fire extinguisher to put the fire out but it was already out of control. She told them to grab the younger siblings while she ran upstairs to a neighbor to call for help as she didn’t have a phone.
The two boys had a small disagreement during the fire.
Sovajie wanted to grab Deamond but Japierre grabbed him and told him to get Najia. He tried to wake her up but she wouldn’t wake up. She was too heavy for him to carry and he dragged her by her arms and struggled to get her to the front door.
He saw the flames spread from his bedroom to the kitchen and towards them.
Vicky was overcome by smoke and realized she couldn’t get back downstairs.
Vicky broke an upstairs window and climbed onto the porch roof.
At this point first responders were there and they were screaming and pleading with her to jump off the roof to safety.
“The smoke was just pouring out of the windows behind her.”
Said Mike Lee.
Vicky was screaming,
“My babies! My babies are in the house!”
She stood on her porch roof with a decision to make.
Climb back into her burning house to save her babies or listen to the firefighters telling her to save herself.
“I hesitated for a minute. He said ‘jump,’ but all I could think about was getting my babies out.”
Vicky was later quoted saying.
She jumped off the roof and landed on St. Paul patrolman Mike Lee and a bystander.
Two firefighters now entered the home to save her two babies.
The two boys had gotten the younger siblings to the front room of the house almost to the front door when help came inside and they were carried out.
They helped Vicky to her feet just in time for her to see two fire fighters carry her two smoke blackened children out of the house.
Neither child was breathing when they were found in the burning house. They underwent treatment in the Twin Cities.
“I just thank god that they got out.”
Vicky said.
This a memory her children could never forget.
They had only been living in Minnesota for about three months when the fire happened. They were placed into foster care afterwards and Vicky fought to get them back.
One of the happiest moments for her son was when she showed up to bring them home from foster care – especially since they were being severely mistreated in the system.
Somewhere between going to school and trying to rebuild a life, Vicky started to struggle with substance abuse to cope with losing her home and children.
She was only about 23 years old and completely alone with four young children in a new state and had lost everything upon arriving here.
They hold a lot of pain for starting that fire. For injuring their younger siblings whom they always strived to protect and the destruction it caused.
Her children wonder where exactly it went wrong for their mom.
They wonder how their life path may have gone if that fire had not started.
After gaining custody back of her children, Vicky began seeing a man named Tony. They had a rocky relationship but Vicky seemed to be in love with him.
They both spend a little bit of time in jail for substance offenses but it seemed like Vicky was really attempting to live a better life and to be clean.
In a letter she wrote to Tony while in jail, Vicky hoped to get their own apartment and was excited about the future.
Writing,
“So you know what that means…
Our very own apartment again.
This is our opportunity to start over.
I know of some programs where we can get some help.
I want to be there for Christmas.
This will be our first Christmas together.
I want a tree, and lots of Holiday spirit.
I plan on buying lots of gifts, I’m going to cook a big dinner.
Please, all it takes is the desire to want to live life to the fullest.
Cause we haven’t been living.”
In December of 1993, Vicky moved into a new apartment with her children.
In March of 1994, Vicky admitted herself into a treatment center.
She is working through substance abuse issues and receives prenatal care as she is pregnant with her fifth child.
In May of 1994, Tony went to jail.
In early June of 1994, Vicky had her last child, a baby girl named Shathaka.
She soon admits herself into another treatment group in an attempt to remain sober.
Vicky would have times where she would be sober but then have a few days where she would binge. It was a vicious cycle she was trying to break from.
She leaves that group for unknown reasons, leaving most of her belongings there.
June 27th, 1994, Vicky is put in jail for a drug charge but was released due to insufficient evidence.
July 1st, 1994, a friend of Vicky’s saw her at a mutual friend’s home in the city.
Vicky called this friend the next night from an unknown motel in the city stating she was with a ‘John’ and he was spending a lot of money.
This is the confirmed last time anyone spoke to Vicky.
A friend of Vicky named Dewanda stated she saw Vicky within the first week of July when she came over to her home to show her her newborn.
July 11th, 1994, Dewanda goes to the police to report Vicky missing.
Though Vicky had disappeared before, this was different. She would always let someone know she was okay.
And this day was an important day:
It was her son’s sixth birthday.
She wouldn’t have missed it and at the absolute very least would have called.
Vicky’s friends feared that she was dead and were desperate to find her.
The nude body of Vicky was discovered along an old fence line in deep grass in Wright County on October 8th, 1994.
White plastic strapping tape bound her ankle and knee area.
A small diameter spiral braided cord was found wrapped around her neck twice and knotted with a double overhand knot.
Her body was decomposed suggesting she had been there for a while – probably since close to when she was reported missing in July but it was hard to get an exact date.
It took a couple of months to officially identify Vicky and very little has ever been reported on in her case ever since.
Najia was 4 years old when she lost her mother. That same year she discovered her love for singing, dancing and the stage.
Since Vicky had the same gifts, she believes that was her mother’s way of connecting with her and guiding her to use her gift in this life.
She thrives in her mother’s memory.
The last time Sovajie saw his mom she left the four of them in the home alone. Vicky taught the oldest son how to cook some meals to keep his siblings fed.
Vicky was fighting Tony with a butcher knife.
They both left the house running and he doesn’t remember who was chasing who. That’s the last memory he has of his mother.
After Vicky’s death, the four oldest of her children went back to Chicago to James Dukes and their grandma Tina, who both stepped up to take care of them.
It would take years before they would get to reunite with their baby sister but it was a very happy meeting once they got that chance.
They are all close and keep a close connection to each other.
Her children transformed their pain and questions into their art and music – all are extremely talented.
The ones who have children of their own now are creating a world where their kids are going to flourish and thrive.
God, of course, guides them throughout life too.
Though there are a few suspects in her case along with DNA evidence that did hit on a few men not much is being done in regards to closing her case.
No news release, no updates, no community effort.
Her story and case is complex and should be dealt with with respect and nuance. In 31 years, all Wright County police and the Minnesota BCA have said about Vicky, was that she was an addict and sex worker along with a badly scanned mugshot.
Vicky was not those things.
Her children are now creating the world I wonder if their mother was hopelessly searching for life, with the only tools that she had at the time.
Vicky may have done things that we pass judgement on but she was a beautiful human who was desperately trying to survive and despite everything tried her absolute hardest to provide for her children.
Her family are also on the same search as I am:
Discovering piece by piece who their mother was both in life and in death.
I’m happy to finally have pictures of Vicky, stories and that I’m able to dedicate a full episode solely to Vicky.
Thank you to her amazing and resilient children for allowing me to search along with them and share it with you.
Please share Vicky’s story – her family deserves to have the platform.
Rest in Peace Vicky – you will never be forgotten.
As her son said and we all stand by –
“There will be Justice – it’s guaranteed by God.”
Please return for episode thirteen about similar victims to Vicky that we can look into and a look into the grouping of serial killings close to her.
Thank you for listening. Stay safe, everyone.
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