“Your son was doomed to die that day,” one of the voices said on the other end as I pushed the phone further into my ear. She and another staff member of Macon State Prison had called me on a three-way some time after Sip’s murder to depict to me the details of that fateful day of March 20th, 2020. 

I had just left work, and sitting in my car when my cell phone rang. 

“Ms. Bradley, this is Ms. Jones from Macon State Prison. Do you have a minute?”

I scrambled for pen and paper to jot down names and key details like I had done since the very first day of this horrendous ordeal.

Ms. Jones continued, “I also have Ms. Price on the other end. We were with your son when he took his last breath.” 

Ms. Price paused and exhaled, “I don’t know why things played out the way they did on that particular day and why it had to be Sip – we’ll never know - but he was doomed to lose his life that day.” 

She went on to describe what she called a series of “preventable circumstances.” The nurse who was working in the infirmary that day, she stated, had a habit of turning the radio down. “She can’t hear as it is and had been told several times to stop turning it down. So when the Code Blue was called she didn’t hear it. The Code had been called four times. We had to run in there and grab the crash cart and tell her there was a Code Blue called.” Ms. Price continued, “When we made it to the gate, there was no guard there to let us in. We could have gotten in with the Master Key, but there wasn’t one. The previous worker had taken it home and not returned it. I warned Warden Perry this would happen if he didn’t hurry up and replace that key. He never did. Warden Perry was getting his hair cut while your son was being murdered.” 

I felt like I was trapped underwater. Their voices were so close, but yet so distant. My mind briefly went back to the phone call I received from another prisoner the day Sip was killed; “check on your son. They said he was dead.” I started gasping for air. 

Ms. Price takes a moment before she starts up again, “I never speak to family, and I’m sorry this happened. He didn’t deserve it. It shouldn’t have happened. And this is why we were compelled to speak to you.” 

“How long would you say we waited at the gate to get in the dorm,” Ms. Jones asked Ms. Price. 

“I don’t know the exact time but it was an extended period. I’m going to say this, if the officer would have been in place at the gate, or we would have had a Master Key to get in, we would have made it to your son and I believe he would have lived.” 

I managed to get out one question, and with each word I felt like I was drowning. “Was my baby alive when y’all finally got to him?” 

“Ms. Bradley…”

“Tell me please. I need to know.” 

Ms. Price hesitated, “he was covered in blood, and we had pressure dressings ready. The last thing I remember is Sip looking at the Orderly, and right before he took his last breathe, he said, ‘don’t let me die.’”