DEIDRE SILAS July 30, 1985-Jan. 4, 2022

Deidre Silas was a “go-getter” and “always one to diffuse a situation” rather than allow it to escalate, her mother says.

Silas’ parents said those traits made it all the more painful to lose someone with her ambition, talent and energy. She was killed Jan. 4, 2022, while working as an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and responding to what her union called a report of children in danger at a home in Thayer.

“It’s such a waste,” said Silas’ father, Roy Graham, 62, who lives with his wife and Deidre’s mother, Barie, 58, in Springfield. “I think about it every day.”

Barie Graham, a room service associate at Springfield Memorial Hospital, said her daughter was a “kindhearted person. Her goal was to help a child.”

Few details have emerged thus far about Deidre Silas’ death in Thayer, a village of about 630 people at the southern tip of Sangamon County. The situation frustrates her parents. They say they want to see Benjamin Reed, 33, of Thayer, who has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint in connection with Silas’ stabbing and bludgeoning death, to go to prison for the rest of his life. They said they also want to see more people charged in the case.

Charges remain pending against Reed, who authorities say lived at the home Silas was visiting. He is being held without bail at the Sangamon County Jail.

Silas, like her parents, was born in Jamaica and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She moved to Springfield with her father, who works as a sterile processing technician at Memorial, when she was 10. Her mother and younger brother, Mario, now 32, followed from Jamaica. They all live in Springfield now, as does Silas’ husband, Andre Silas, and her two children, a 6-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter.

Andre Silas, who cares full time for the children, both of whom have autism, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Deidre, who attended what is now Lincoln Magnet School and Grant Middle School, graduated from Springfield High School and at one time talked about becoming a lawyer, her parents said.

“She loved to talk. She loved to write,” Roy Graham said.

But after growing up with many cousins in Jamaica, whom Deidre Silas would visit in the summers, and volunteering as a high school student to mentor younger children in Springfield, she eventually turned her attention to social services, according to her mother.

Silas graduated from Illinois State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice science, and later earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Phoenix.

After graduation from ISU, Silas worked as a correctional officer for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice at the all-male Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles. The residents there called her “Mama D.” because of her motherly approach in mentoring young people, Roy Graham said.

Her life wasn’t without struggle. She wrote in a self-published book, The Crowns I Wear, that she dealt with depression and contemplated suicide. But she wrote that her Christian faith helped pull her through two deliveries, the difficulties of being a military wife and life on an Army base in Kansas while her husband was deployed.

“As women, we tend to play many roles and wear many crowns in our lives,” Silas wrote in the preface to her 2020 book. “I have personally worn several in the last 10 years of my life. Some I wear with pride, and some taught me a life lesson. … My goal for this book is that readers take how important self-care is and to reach out to someone when you’re at that breaking point.”

Silas and her family moved back to Springfield in July 2021 after encountering financial hardships while living in Arizona, her parents said. She worked as a behavioral health specialist at Springfield’s Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center before taking a job with DCFS in August 2021.

She hoped to work her way into a managerial or administrator position at DCFS, her parents said. Silas seemed to be getting satisfaction from her job, which sometimes involved removing children from abusive or dangerous home situations, Roy Graham said.

She wasn’t worried about her personal safety, he said. “It’s not a job that you think every day about being hurt,” Roy Graham said.

Silas’ death was the second of its kind in four years. DCFS investigator Pam Knight was attacked in Carroll County in September 2017 and died about four months later from the fractured skull and brain damage she sustained.

Silas’ parents said they appreciated the kind words and assistance from Gov. JB Pritzker, DCFS Director Marc Smith, Roberta Lynch, president of Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and DCFS Deputy Chief of Staff Glenda Lashley after their daughter’s death.

They said they are happy about several things that have happened in the wake of her death, including the passage of Illinois laws that authorize DCFS investigators to carry personal protection spray devices such as mace or pepper gas, and the 100%-paid extension of state health insurance coverage for families of any state or university employee killed in the line of duty.

AFSCME says it is working to improve DCFS staffing levels to increase the frequency of DCFS investigators going in pairs into homes.

A bill backed by Pritzker to establish enhanced criminal penalties for attacking DCFS employees hasn’t progressed in the General Assembly.

However, Roy Graham said he would get more comfort from learning more details about the home visit her daughter made, what happened inside the house where his daughter died, and why she apparently became a target.

Police said six children, ages 1 to 7, were in the home when the stabbing occurred. Silas was found dead in the residence. Reed was arrested after receiving care for a non-life-threatening cut to his hand at a hospital, police said.

“I want an explanation,” Roy Graham said.

Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.