SAN ANTONIO — Elizabeth Heard said she starts shaking when a familiar foe makes it to her mailbox. Same writing. Varying messaged. All racist.
“Sometimes we get Christmas cards with...they take pictures of monkeys and they put it inside the Christmas card,” Heard said.
She moved to New Braunfels with her family in 2003 from Ft. Hood. Both she and husband Donald were in the U.S. Army. Heard has four daughters: Carrigann Herring and JoAnn Herring, along with twins Ariel and Jillian Heard.
According to Elizabeth Heard, the family started receiving the letters 10 years ago. They believe her eldest daughter is the target.
“It’s not just name-calling. This is my children’s lives,” she said. “This is something that I go through.”
The letters come randomly, and with no return address. She said they normally pop up when Carrigann, who is also in the U.S. Army, comes home. Vulgar words and racial slurs fill the letters. Most are in English, some in Spanish.
Heard has case numbers for reporting the incidents to police three times over the years, including a recent letter that arrived at the end of June.
“I feel my family is threatened. I feel unsafe for my girls,” she said. “I’m just worried about them.”
Her husband tried reported the racial letters to the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office. But the Heards found out that name-calling, even in the form of a racist letter, may not be a crime.
In a statement from the postal inspector’s office in San Antonio, the letters were described as disturbing and having no place in today’s society. But federal intervention to remedy the Heard’s problem is unlikely.
“The letter from New Braunfels does not violate any federal law,” Michael Martinez-Partida said. “Instances like these might be a violation of state harassment laws.”
But it turns out the letter may not even meet the legal requirements to be taken seriously as harassment. Communications Coordinator David Ferguson, with New Braunfels Police, said they will decide on criminality in concert with the district attorney's office.
“A determination by our agency has not yet been made on whether this meets the requirements for harassment under Texas law,” Ferguson said.
The prospect of the reoccurring letters is frustrating for a family who wants the racist mail to stop. They also want to find out who’s behind the letters.
“I’m mad because this isn’t legal,” Heard said.