GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — The Gaston County mother of a 3-year-old girl who was killed last month spoke with Channel 9 Thursday about the investigation into her daughter's death.
"She is always with me," Jaylene Dumont said in an exclusive TV interview with Channel 9.
She keeps some of the ashes of her daughter, Jordyn, in a purple-heart necklace.
She said she went to the Gaston County Jail to show that locket to her boyfriend, William McCullen, who is charged with killing Jordyn. Records show Jaylene is the only person who has visited McCullen.
The visit lasted for 15 minutes. Dumont said McCullen cried and kept saying he was sorry.
Click play to watch raw video of our interview with Dumont
"I didn't get what I wanted," she said. "I wanted answers and I am getting all of this hate from everybody. If your child was murdered wouldn't you want answers?"
Dumont was at work last month when McCullen called 911 and told dispatchers he was asleep and woke to find the door to their home on Bess Town Road open and Jordyn gone, police said.
The girl's body was found a few hundred yards away from the home, wrapped in a sheet.
Police said Jordyn died of blunt force trauma and was dead before her body was placed in the woods.
Dumont said she doesn't know how or why her daughter was killed. McCullen and Jordyn had a great relationship, according to Dumont.
"I would watch for any signs of being scared and she was never scared of him," she said. "She loved him as a dad because she never had a dad.”
In the days after McCullen's arrest, Jordyn's father and neighbors told Channel 9 that McCullen and Dumont abused the girl.
Channel 9 also learned that the Department of Social Services visited McCullen's home five times to check on Jordyn's well-being.
Dumont denies all abuse allegations.
"How can people sit here and say I was abusive?” she asked. “I could never hurt my kids."
Dumont refused to answer whether she thought McCullen was guilty of killing her daughter. When asked if she thought he was capable, she said it may have been a reaction.
"I don't see him doing that but everybody tells me everybody snaps, that is what a lot of people have told me," she said.
Dumont said she is committed to getting justice for Jordyn. She wouldn't say what she wants to happen to McCullen, only that she wants to know the truth.
"I can't get her back, I can't hold her, I can't kiss her, I can't read to her," she said. "I can't do nothing. All I have to do is sit there and think of her."
McCullen is the only person facing charges. Dumont's other child remains in DSS custody.