Tuesday was supposed to be a day of celebration. It was Alton Perry’s second birthday. He and his 6-month-old brother Ashton spent the day at Kidds & Co., a day care center in North Stonington.
Their grandmother, Debra Denison, 47, picked up the children from the day care center in the afternoon and then everything went horribly wrong. After an Amber Alert and a frantic search, Denison and the two boys were found dead at Foxwoods' Lake of Isles golf course; an apparent murder-suicide.
“They were beautiful children,” a distraught Christine Hare, Co-owner of Kidds & Co. said. The boys' parents are Brenda and Jeremy Perry of North Stonington.
Hare and co-owner Nicki Salaun opened the family-owned day care center in 2008. It is licensed by state of Connecticut. Hare said the Perry boys began attending the day care in September or October of 2012.
“It will be a tough couple of days,” Hare said. “We’re here for the parents and the staff and the kids.”
Counselors will be at daycare center for at least today.
According to Hare, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Denison to pick up the boys. The boys’ mother had notified the caregivers to expect Denison on Tuesday.
“We were familiar with her, she’d been here before,” Hare said, adding that another grandchild of Denison’s had gone to Kidds & Co. a couple of years ago.
Hare said the parents of the Perry boys are great people and have a huge support system.
“It’s one step at a time,” Hare said.
