Jordan Neely, the homeless man choked to death on the subway, sank into a deep depression after his mother was brutally murdered by his stepfather in 2007 — and was not properly treated for his mental illness, friends and family told The Post.
Neely, who died Monday afternoon after being held in a chokehold for 15 minutes by a straphanger, descended into “a complete mess” after his mother, Christie Neely, was reportedly strangled to death and then stuffed into a suitcase when he was just 14, his aunt, Carolyn Neely, who told The Post.
“My sister Christine was murdered in ‘07 and after that, he has never been the same,” Carolyn Neely, 40, said.
“It had a big impact on him. He developed depression and it grew and became more serious. He was schizophrenic, PTSD. Doctors knew his condition and he needed to be treated for that.”
Christie Neely, who described herself as Neely’s closest relative, said she pleaded with judges and doctors to help get the proper care for her nephew, but to no avail.
“The whole system just failed him. He fell through the cracks of the system,” she said.
Christina Neely was murdered by Shawn Southerland, then 50, who stuffed her dead body in a suitcase and threw it on the shoulder of the Henry Hudson Parkway, according to a 2012 NJ.com report.
Jordan was even called to testify in Southerland’s murder trial.
“The relationship had been crazy… a fight every day,” Neely, then 18, said when describing the relationship between his 36-year-old mother and Southerland, according to the news outlet.
During the trial, Jordan said he tried to say goodbye to his mother before school on April 4, 2007, but Southerland blocked him from their bedroom.
He said later that day Southerland packed up and moved out.
Southerland was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in March 2012.
Nedra Guaba of Washington Heights, who said she wanted to be identified as a close friend of the family, said she knew Jordan’s late mother for most of her life and knew Jordan since he was 4 years old.
“He suffered so much because of what happened to his mother,” Guaba told The Post. “She was his sole support. His father sure wasn’t.”
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Guaba said Neely loved doing his Michael Jackson impersonations on the subway when he was younger but spiraled into difficulties in recent years.
“He liked to hang out at train stations,” Carolyn Neely said. “He wasn’t aggressive. That’s not who he is. He loved to dance and that was his outlet, that was his mental outlet after his mother died.”
Jordan reportedly had been arrested numerous times.
“He really started going downhill two years ago,” Guaba said, “I would see him all the time and give him something to eat. It was like he gave up. He felt his dreams were dead. He needed his mother.”
Cops said Neely had been living on the streets and had a recorded history of mental illness. But Guaba said Neely had a place to live recently but did not want to say where.
Both women said Jordan’s father had not been around much. Carolyn Neely said Andre Zachery, now 60, abandoned Jordan as a baby. Nedra said Jordan lived with his father occasionally but the two did not get along.
Carolyne said she last spoke to Jordan on Facetime seven months ago.
“He would call me. We would video chat. He’d come to me when he had a problem,” said Carolyn, who now lives in Watertown, NY.
During the last call, she said, “He was smiling. He had a beautiful smile.”
Jordan Neely had testified his mother and Southerland met in law school. At the time she died, Christie Neely was working as a telemarketer in Manhattan. Sources said Southerland had worked for a law firm at some point.
Alberto Vazquez, a freelance journalist who filmed video of the shocking incident, told The Post Neely was unhinged, yelling at riders that he didn’t have food or drinks and “doesn’t care if he goes to jail.”
The city medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide Wednesday and said his cause of death was “compression of neck (chokehold).” Prosecutors are mulling whether to press charges against the Marine who choked Neely.
City Comptroller Brad Lander decried the fatal incident, tweeting, “NYC is not Gotham.”
“We must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequence. Or where the killer is justified & cheered.”
