The morning of Dec. 21 broke not with holiday cheer, but with a 911 call that ended a story the world had only just begun to read. Imani Dia Smith, who, a decade ago, as a chil,d brought the vibrant hope of Young Nala to life on Broadway, was discovered with stab wounds in a home on Grove Avenue.
She was 26. Authorities pronounced her dead at a nearby hospital, a final curtain call of the most grievous sort.
The man charged with first-degree murder is Jordan D. Jackson-Small, 35, of Edison.
Officials were swift to label the violence “not random,” a clinical phrase that obscures a more intimate horror.
The family speaks plainly where the press release demurs: Smith was “senselessly killed by her boyfriend.”
Her father confirmed that Jackson-Small is the father of Smith’s 3-year-old son.
Thus, the charges include not only murder but a second-degree count of endangering the welfare of that child, who was present in a home transformed into a crime scene.
Smith’s legacy is one of luminous potential. From 2011 to 2012, she performed in Disney’s “The Lion King,” Broadway’s third-longest running show.
Her aunt, Kira Helper, called her a “true triple-threat performer,” whose work on stage “reflected the joy, creativity, and light she put into the world.”
That light now falls on a makeshift memorial of a GoFundMe page, which has raised over $70,000 for costs that include burying a daughter, cleaning a crime scene, and funding trauma therapy for a little boy who has lost his mother.
This tragedy is not an isolated act but a thread in a worn and bloody national tapestry.
Jessica Arnold, a child guardian at “The Lion King,” noted with grim resonance that Smith is “unfortunately the second Young Nala we’ve lost.”
The industry that creates magic is not immune to the plaguing sickness of violence that follows women home. The accused now sits in the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center.
The machinery of justice grinds on, with a pre-trial detention hearing pending.
Meanwhile, the true work of mourning falls to Smith’s parents, who must now navigate a grim calculus: how to grieve a murdered child while raising her orphaned son.
Her mother, Monique Rance-Helper, a hairstylist for Broadway and film, faces the loss of a daughter and, as a freelance artist, the loss of income during this devastating time.
Smith’s mother also worked on “The Lion King” in the hair and wig department, as well as on other Broadway and television shows.
Smith’s father, Rawni Helper, and his wife, Monique, are raising Imani’s young son and supporting other family members.
We report this fact, cold and bare: a woman is dead, allegedly at the hands of a man she knew. A boy will grow up without his mother. A family’s world is shattered days before Christmas.
The echo of a once-celebrated voice is silenced, leaving us to wonder what song, what joy, what light has been stolen from the world, and why we tolerate a society where such theft is so commonplace.
Jackson-Small is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The investigation continues.