It Took Princess Wolfe Months to Nurture Her Baby-to-Be—and a Split Second for Gunfire to Take It All Away

A surgical team managed to save the pregnant mother, who was shot twice in the stomach as she slept in her apartment with her 8-year-old daughter in the early morning of March 25 in Lovejoy, Georgia.

But a second surgical team was unable to save Princess Wolfe’s 27-year-old unborn baby girl. The child has been named Cori. Her great-aunt, Stephanie McGruder, was later allowed to see her.

McGruder found that the nurses treated the murdered child as if they were an infant. They took her footprints and wrapped her in a scarf and put a small multicolored beanie on her head.

“I asked if they would open her up so I could see her in its entirety,” McGruder recalls. “You want to see those little toes, little hands, you know? I want to salvage any precious moments that I can. ”

The nurses obeyed and McGruder saw that Cori was wearing a white satin gown they were sure to have on hand.

“It was beautiful,” McGruder recalls. “It’s something really delicate and precious.”

McGruder then peered under the fine mantle to see a hideous wound. The first surgical team was the one who informed the family and said that the baby was still intact. The team must have been so focused on saving the mother that they didn’t realize that at least one bullet had hit the baby while it was still in the womb. McGruder now understood why there was a trail of blood on the footprint document.

After the Clayton County medical examiner conducted an autopsy and determined that the baby had survived, the Lovejoy Police Department pursued what Sheriff Michael Gaddis told The Daily Beast as a case. killing. Gaddis said the multiple bullet holes in the Princess’ bedroom window led them to conclude that she was not hit; she was targeted.

On Wednesday, March 30, the Princess made a video from Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. The pregnancy is very difficult and she has been on bed rest for the past 5 months and has done everything she can to not lose her baby just for it to end this way.

“All I want is justice for my unborn child,” she said in the video. “And I’m just asking anyone, if anyone knows anything, if anyone sees anything, please contact Lovejoy police.”

Her family has been preparing for a funeral to be held when the Princess recovers. The preparation is the same as anyone’s, says McGruder.

“It makes no difference,” said McGruder. “The funeral home has stored her remains and they are embalming her.”

And they’re choosing a coffin.

“It’s just smaller,” McGruder said.

No need to buy a final outfit.

“We just had a wonderful fairy bath in early March,” says McGruder. “And so the baby has enough clothes to wear for the next two to three years.”

McGruder reported that the death was particularly severe for 8-year-old Paris, who was lying in bed with her mother, dreaming of unicorns when she suddenly awoke to the sound of gunfire.

“Her mother pushed her to the floor and told her to lie down because someone was shooting,” McGruder said. “[Princess] one by one rolled onto the bed to stay away from the window because the bullets went through the window. And when she stepped on the floor, she realized she was bleeding.”

The princess whispered to her daughter.

“She said, ‘Get the phone. I need medical help. We need to dial 911,” McGruder told The Daily Beast.

McGruder rushed to the scene and arrived just in time for an ambulance to take the Princess away. McGruder asked to enter the apartment and the police agreed, warning her not to touch anything.

“When I opened the door, I saw my eight-year-old niece, Paris, sitting quietly on the couch, staring,” McGruder recalls. “And when she saw me there, we ran to each other. I hold her, I hug her. I picked her up. I told her, I’m glad she’s safe. I kissed her. We cried. And then I took her into the bedroom so we could pack her clothes. I knew I needed to get her out of there.”

The family waited three days to tell her what had happened to the baby. They convened a family meeting that included the paternal grandparents and paternal grandparents of Paris. Her teacher attended virtual.

“We know that she knew her mother had been shot twice,” McGruder said. “The good news is that her mother will be fine. The bad news is that she lost her little sister. You know, it scared her and she started crying for hours on end, and they tried to comfort her and give her some peace. But we do know that because of her mental state, she will need some professional care to help process all of this.”

McGruder concluded, “She was broken.”

McGruder said the loss may one day ease with the arrival of another sibling. The first surgical team leader told the family at the hospital that he had been trying to reconstruct the Princess’s bullet-riddled uterus.

“He’s suggesting that she might be able to conceive in the future,” says McGruder.

At the funeral, Paris will say goodbye to her sister who has been scheduled for just a few days on the night she dreamed of unicorns in a country with guns.