Family of woman charged with killing man in east Charlotte says she struggles with mental health

CHARLOTTE — The family of a woman who has been accused of killing a man in east Charlotte said she is not a monster.

Instead, family members said they believe Courtney McKoy may have been struggling with mental illness.

“She was a loving person, real quiet. Soft-spoken. Very smart. Graduated with a 4.4 GPA.,” Keisha Reel, McKoy’s mother, said.

McKoy has been charged in connection with the murder of 54-year-old Clarence Lee Ardrey.

“It crushes my heart, you know, no parent wants to see their child like that way,” Reel said.

Channel 9′s Glenn Counts spoke with Courtney’s mother and father, Curtis McKoy.

They said they believe Courtney’s criminal justice issues stem from her problems with mental health.

They said she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety, and these issues started to surface around seven years ago.

“We tried to get her help through mental health. We would take her and it was like they would send her right back home,” Reel said.

The family said they hoped the courts would step in, especially after Courtney kept getting arrested.

According to court documents, since 2019 Courtney has been arrested or cited for either threatening or attacking another person with knives at least five times. The last two times, Courtney was able to get out of jail due to a pretrial release.

Following the second release, police said Courtney stabbed Ardrey to death on April 8.

“We could not understand how she kept getting back out of jail after all the charges and the seriousness of the charges that were brought to her,” Reel said.

When Channel 9 asked the agency how McKoy qualified for release, they issued the following statement:

“Criminal Justice Services accepts individuals for pretrial supervision based upon release conditions set by judicial officials. Those conditions are based upon a variety of factors which include, but are not limited to the nature and circumstances of the offense charged. Criminal Justice Services cannot comment on specific cases.”

“She’s not a monster. She just needed help, and I feel like the court system let her down,” Reel said.

Reels said the Ardreys lost their loved one, and now she feels like she has lost her daughter.

“Just from my family to theirs, we are so sorry that this happened. We send our deepest, deepest condolences to the Ardrey family.”

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27-year-old woman charged with killing man in east Charlotte had lengthy record, documents say

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