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The Jackson 5‘s Tito Jackson says in a new episode of ABC’s 20/20 in focusing on the 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Delores “Dee Dee” Jackson, that the day she died was the “coldest day” of his and his sons’ lives.
Tito recalls, “[My sons] said, ‘Mom is dead.’ It was just a sad moment, you know. It was just horrifying.”
Tito’s son Taryll remembers getting the phone call about his mom’s death, saying, “I was told that my mom had been in an accident and that I need to go to the hospital right away.”
Meanwhile, his youngest son TJ says he “had a sixth sense in my head,” adding, “It’s as if I knew already that my mother wasn’t with us.”
Tito and Delores met at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and they wed right out of school in 1972. She also became part of the whirlwind of fame surrounding The Jackson 5.
However, in 1993, she and Tito divorced.
Months later, at the age of 39, Dee Dee started dating then-boyfriend Don Bohana. Then, on August 27, 1994, she died.
The Jackson family said they immediately had questions and did not believe Dee Dee accidentally drowned in the pool because, they say, she was terrified of water.
Tito also believes “the bruises and the damage” on her body seemed to indicate that there had been scuffles and fights.
Bohana, who was convicted of Dee Dee’s murder, told the press after her death that she had been comfortable swimming in his pool and that the bruises were the result of his efforts to pull her out.
The Jacksons, however, believe Bohana wanted Dee Dee to help him with financial difficulties and they theorize that when she refused, he killed her in a fit of rage.
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