A woman who killed her granddaughter’s mother and then committed suicide did so as part of a sick, meticulous plan to get her Upper East Side son to gain full custody of her 4-year-old grandson, new court documents allege.
The shocking Manhattan complaint also reveals heartbreaking details about what life was like for the parents of victim Marisa Galloway, who lost their daughter in a murder-suicide horror.
Last month, Kathleen Lee, 65, a terminally ill former Chicago probation officer, shot and killed Galloway, 45, a special needs teacher who had a child with Lee’s son, Zachariah Reed, on a leafy Manhattan street, then killed herself.
Now, Ms. Galloway’s parents, Nancy and John Galloway, have filed an emergency court petition alleging that Reed eloped with their beloved granddaughter, Lili, to a “multi-million dollar home” in Chicago on the pretext of “mourning” Lea’s death, and has banned the Galloways from having any contact with their daughter, even by video call.
“clearly, [Reed’s] “The mother had hatched a plan to kill Marisa in order to gain custody of her son,” court documents allege. “Unfortunately, [Reed] He has refused all contact with Lili for almost three weeks, demonstrating his absolute determination to further the same goals as his mother.”
According to legal documents filed Friday, the grandparents, who live in Cape May, New Jersey, are asking a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to cede to them parenting time for Marisa that was stipulated in a 2022 custody agreement with Reed.
They also want Reed to force Lili to live in New York until she turns 18 so she can have a close relationship with her grandparents and her half-sister Marisa’s one-year-old daughter Mariel, who she had with a sperm donor, the lawsuit said.
A law enforcement source told The Post that the Galloways now have custody of Mariel.
In her heartbreaking affidavit, Nancy revealed that she and her husband had a loving and “hands-on” relationship with Lili, seeing her two or three times a month, often for multiple nights, when Marisa brought the children to their home in the Garden State or when she visited Marisa and her daughters in the city.
“‘When we weren’t looking [Lili]we spoke almost daily on Facetime,” Nancy wrote in the affidavit.
Nancy and John were actively involved in their daughter’s upbringing, changing her diapers and feeding her when she was a baby, and as she grew older, each grandparent loved to participate in special activities with her, the lawsuit states.
John and Lili love gardening together, watering the flowers and picking cherry tomatoes, and John would wait to tend to the garden until Lili was with him, according to Nancy’s affidavit.
Nancy loved teaching Lili French and baking cakes with her, and noted in the newspaper that Lili’s “favourite thing was cracking eggs.”
The girl was “very proud” when Nancy and Lili completed the 150-piece American puzzle in just over an hour, the lawsuit states.
“Marisa has always been the best mother and we want to be involved in every aspect of caring for a baby, toddler and eventually a little girl like Lili, who she is now,” Nancy wrote.
Nancy said she felt “deeply uncomfortable” being forced to file the petition, but feared that if she didn’t intervene, Lili would become estranged from her maternal family.
The grandmother described Marisa and Reed’s “tumultuous relationship” since their separation and the history of their “bitter” custody battle.
She claimed the two had been dating before Marisa became pregnant, but their relationship “ended [Reed’s] mother.”
Marisa and Reed were in a relationship until she was “forced to leave… [Reed] “Marisa was terminated on July 25, 2021, due to fears for her safety,” the affidavit explains.
According to court documents, the couple reached an agreement on custody of Lili on November 4, 2022, under which Lili’s mother would be in charge of her for nine of the 14 nights, and Reid would spend the remaining nights with her.
The estranged couple also agreed to live within the five boroughs of New York City until Lili graduated from high school, unless otherwise agreed by both parties or ordered by a court, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, their custody agreement contained a clause that stated that if anything were to happen to Marisa and Reed, the custody terms would be “binding” on their estates and executors.
Nancy explained in the complaint that Marisa had “always been worried about Lili having a sibling” and therefore “decided to take on the daunting task of having a second child with an anonymous sperm donor in order to give Lili a brother or sister.”
Lili said she was very “proud” to be Mariel’s big sister, and “from the moment Mariel was born, she and Lili had a very special relationship,” Nancy said in the statement.
In her affidavit, Nancy said Lili would sing Mariel’s songs, play with her baby sister using “stuffed toys” and even draw pictures of the family.
When Mariel woke up from her nap, Lili would give her Cheerios and bananas and do funny dances and sing songs, the lawsuit states.
“On July 26th 2024, all of our lives changed forever,” a heartbroken Nancy wrote.
That day, Marisa, a former volunteer track coach at Fordham University and an official at the Central Park Track Club, packed her bags, loaded Mariel into her Honda Civic and headed off to spend five nights with her parents in New Jersey. She planned to pick up Lili from her father before leaving town, court documents state.
However, Lee approached Marisa as she was loading something into the trunk and shot her once in the back of the head and once more in the back before turning the gun on himself.
Lee had terminal cancer and lived with Reed in an apartment on East 79th Street, where Lili stayed while Reed came to visit.
Before the heinous crime, Lee scribbled a seven-page letter “to law enforcement” in which he felt Marisa was trying to take Lili away from Reed and suspected she had abused Lili, even though child welfare authorities had exonerated Marisa after two investigations initiated by Reed and friends and family said she was just a doting mother.
“She took away her mother to make her son happy… it’s shocking,” a law enforcement source told The Post shortly after the murder-suicide. “I’ve seen a lot of horrible things, but this is biblical.”
In court documents, Nancy said she and her husband had asked Reed to speak to Lili “numerously” since the horrific incident, worried about how Lili was doing after the loss of their mother and that the younger sisters needed to comfort each other, but that Reed would not allow her to even see Lili via video call.
“How do we [Lili] What are they doing? [Reed] “He even spoke to Lili about her mother,” the court documents state. “This is completely unacceptable behavior and must be corrected immediately.”
The grandparents are so committed that they stay at Marisa’s apartment on East 86th Street while visiting Lily during the week, and they’ve also required Lily to video call Mariel every day.
Neither the Galloways’ lawyers nor the lawyer who represented Reed in his initial custody case with Marisa Reed immediately responded to The Post’s requests for comment, and a phone number for Reed could not be immediately found.
