Family recalls victims of murder-arson near Villa Park

Tired of the hustle and bustle of the city, Ursula Nailor and her two sons were getting ready to move to Alabama to live with her mother.

They never got the chance.

Instead, Nailor was found dead Tuesday along with her sons, Darnell Holt and Daniel Nailor, and her niece Dominique Robinson inside their Villa Park-area home — the victims of an apparent murder and arson.

Authorities believe Nailor’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Cedric Anderson, shot all four before setting fire to the house. Anderson later was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his father’s house in South suburban Dolton.

On Friday, Ursula’s mother, Doris Wallace, and other family members of the four victims gathered at J.W. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maywood to recall memories of their loved ones. They didn’t speak directly about what may have led Anderson to the quadruple murder, but Wallace did issue a word of warning to “young men.”

“You can’t control anybody,” she said. “You just have to get some understanding. If you don’t have an understanding with your other half, then get away, because it’s not going to change for the better.”

Wallace said she doesn’t hold any anger — her love from people around her overrides that. She also said she’s been praying for Anderson’s mother and daughter.

After learning of the tragic events on Tuesday, Dominique’s mother, Shelia, said she wanted to know why.

“What could somebody have done to you to push this to this level?” she said. “It’s unreal. It’s still unreal, this whole thing.”

Shelia Robinson said her daughter, a 2011 graduate of Bolingbrook High School, had planned to follow in her footsteps and enter the Army. Robinson says her job now is to be there for her 9-year-old niece, who lives with her and considered Dominique to be “like a sister.”

Robinson also thanked all who have reached out to the family, including those who have posted on memorial pages set up on Facebook.

“Please continue to support us because I’m going to need you — everybody — to help hold me together, because a part of my world is lost,” Robinson said. “This is never going to be OK. It’s never going to be over for me.”

She said her sister Ursula was her best friend, and they often traveled together. While Robinson called herself a “tomboy,” Ursula was “the fancy one.”

Darnell, a freshman at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, was on the football and wrestling teams. Robinson recalled the times when Darnell would brag about running a 7-minute mile and challenge people to do push-ups and pull-ups.

Daniel’s father, John Taylor, said his son, a seventh-grader at Albright Middle School in Villa Park, loved sports and movies. Friday would have been his 13th birthday.

“I’m at a loss of words,” Taylor said.

The Rev. Garry Mitchell, pastor of J.W. James Church, said a website, 4triumphovertragedy.com, has been set up where donations can be made to help the family with burial costs.

“The family has been hit with a tremendous amount of tragedy, but they are being sustained. They are committed to triumphing over the tragedy that they have been placed in,” Mitchell said.

Funeral arrangements are still pending.