JEFFERSON TWP., Montgomery County — The Dayton woman who was killed in Fort Myers, Florida, during Hurricane Ian is to be buried Saturday in Jefferson Twp.
But the family of Nishelle Harris-Miles has questions about how she died three weeks ago and why it wasn’t prevented.
“I just don’t understand, being a motel, why would you allow these girls to come, knowing the hurricane was coming,” Nishelle’s mother, Michele Harris, said to News Center 7′s Mike Campbell.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Mother of Dayton woman killed during Hurricane Ian wants to bring daughter home
Nishelle was killed when flooding swept through her Fort Myers vacation spot.
But her mother told Campbell she learned just this week that Nishelle, a second daughter and two friends were at a motel and not an Airbnb. The party of four missed their first flight but the motel property manager called them and told them to come the next day.
“Shouldn’t have called them and told them it was OK to come,” mother Harris said. “My baby would still be here. . . .”
The property manager did move the four women from the first floor to the second. But the survivors, including Laquita Heard, who sat with Michele Harris, said the motel was about the only building in town not boarded up and closed down.
The entire trip was a nightmare and remains that way.
“Every day, I can not sleep, I can never get it out of my mind,” Heard told Campbell. “I have mixed emotions, guilt, shame, mixed emotions, so many mixed emotions.”
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Heard told Campbell that Nishelle Harris-Miles, a mother of four, died when the section of motel they were in broke loose and was carried three bocks, then the roof come down on the women.
A nail pierced Nishelle’s neck, inflicting fatal injuries.
The ongoing pain, and questions, are more difficult than ever.
“I just cant understand it, knowing they are not from there, no how, no way, never been in a hurricane, never death with anything like that, you tell them its ok to come,” mother Harris said.
Mother Harris she has not been contacted by the hotel manager, who survived the storm, or by the motel owner.
Now she is focused on her daughter’s memorial services.
“It’s a celebration of life, Nene loved life,” her mother said.
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