At four months old, the familial life of baby Zoey seems to be in turmoil. Her father, Jovan Belcher, shot and killed her mother after a very ugly argument in December, but now her grandparents are at odds over who should take custody of her. After the tragedy occurred that took the lives of both of her parents, according to the Daily Mail, authorities handed little Zoey over to Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, who was actually present at the time when Belcher shot and killed Kassandra Perkins. But when Shepherd let Perkins’ family take the little girl to Texas so that she could attend her mother’s funeral, they decided NOT to bring her back. They’ve also stopped communicating with Shepherd, and it’s been drama ever since.
Shepherd is now seeking full custody of Zoey, and with that responsibility, she would also get to be conservator of the child’s estate, while Zoey’s maternal grandparents and other family members are also filing suit, asking to care for the girl, that her residence be in Texas, and that a guardian ad litem would be appointed by the courts to handle her benefits. As we told you before, as part of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, under the new Surviving Child benefit, Zoey will be able to collect $108,000 each year from now until she is 5, and after that she will receive $48,000, and then $52,000 until she is 18 or 23 years old, depending on whether or not she goes to college. But we’re going to just assume the intentions of both of these families are good, that they just want to have this child around because they love her, and that the battle between them has nothing to do with the money she will receive at all.
