Father of woman killed at Clewiston festival shooting dies days later

A family mourning the sudden death of their daughter shot and killed at a May 1 festival is now mourning the death of their father.

The family of 20-year-old Evereonna Sankey became heartbroken over her murder after she was shot and killed at Brown Sugar Festival in Clewiston recently.

We learned Wednesday Evereonna’s father, Everett Sankey, died of natural causes Tuesday night while grieving for her at home.

“He just couldn’t take being without my daughter,” mother and wife Teresa Sankey said. “They were so close, and he just couldn’t take it. We believe he had a heart attack.”

In the span of five days, Teresa lost her daughter to violence and her husband in the wake of it. She believes a heart attack or the stress of losing their child killed him.

Evereonna was a daddy’s girl, and he cried for her Tuesday night, the family explained.

“I saw him sitting on the edge of the bed. He was crying, but you know, I just let him grieve,” said Latresa Tillman, Evereonna’s sister. “I heard him cry out, and when I opened the door, he was falling back with his hand on his chest.”

Tillman called Everett’s name, but he did not respond to her. She said she checked his pulse and did not feel anything, so she and her other sister started CPR.

“I had to do CPR on my baby sister, and then, I had to do it on my daddy,” Tillman said.

“He just couldn’t live without her,” Teresa said.

This family is holding each other tight and trying to keep it all together. They hope the person who shot Evereonna and caused all of their pain is caught soon.

“They killed my baby, and now, my husband is gone,” Teresa said. “I just want anybody who knows anything about what happened at Brown Sugar to please come forward because now my baby is gone, and my husband is gone because of that one incident.”

“Not only did you kill my little sister, but you killed my daddy too,” Tillman said. “We just need to find who did this.”

Tuesday, we spoke to Sheriff Steve Whidden. He told us they have multiple suspects, but they can’t identify them yet.

Hendry County Sheriff’s Office posted a message on the HCSO Facebook page asking people to share its post to submit any related photos or videos from the shooting. The post has a link to the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office – FL Evidence Submission Portal for submissions.