New Orleans - Serious questions are surfacing tonight about the now closed Harmony House foster home.
It’s owned by former LSU basketball great Collis Temple.
In late May, a 16-year-old resident was found murdered hours after he signed himself out of the home to go to the gym.
Now, family members want answers.
Donlynn Lee died around 8 pm in late May - a time when he was supposed to be inside the Harmony House.
This past year, the state gave Harmony House almost half a million dollars to care for the 13 children living there.
Donlynn's grandparents are now questioning where that money went and why rules at the home weren't being more strictly enforced.
Donlynn was a Douglas High School football player, stand out student and a foster child who had seen more than his share of heart ache: Donlynn's father is in jail. The state took Donlynn and his 3 siblings away from mother in 2003. Two were adopted, family took one and Donlynn ended up at Harmony House in foster care.
"A terrible place for anyone to live," is how Donlynn’s paternal grandmother Beatrice Burns describes Harmony House.
"Horrible - for children to be taken care of in a facility like that,” adds grandfather Donlynn Burns.
The Burns' have lots of questions about Harmony House concerning its physical condition and how much supervision its residents receive.
The Burns' say Donlynn came and went as he pleased - instead of having to abide by a curfew and sign out only for specific activities.
“A lot of times we didn't know he was out. He would just pop up on my wife or my daughter - or say ‘Paw Paw I'm coming to holler at y'all’," says Donlynn Burns.
On the night Donlynn was killed, he left Harmony House to bring his little sister his prom picture...but she wasn't home.
“He had just brought the pictures he had developed from the prom. He was supposed to be coming back to talk with his sister about what a good time they had, but he didn't make it," says Donlynn Burns.
Donlynn's grandparents say he was on his way back to the Harmony House when he was killed on South Claiborne and Fern. Had he made it - it would have been a 5.5 mile walk.
Now, they're left with more questions than answers...and an empty feeling that has no cure
Lee's family is considering legal action against the Harmony House.
They say it's too late for him, but they want to protect other children in Harmony House locations across the state.
The state pays former LSU basketball player Collis Temple millions every year to run these homes.
We have left messages for Temple and his Baton Rouge attorney, but so far all they have to say is no comment.
