Dylann Roof

Roof’s father Franklin (known as “Benn”) marries Paige Mann in Florida, when they were living together in Columbia, South Carolina. Dylann is four years old, and his half-sister Amber is 11. Mann:

[I] raised (Franklin’s) kids from a very young age, took them to all of their activities, and Benn’s kids have spent almost every weekend with me. After we moved to Florida our marriage really began to deteriorate when Benn became so controlling…Benn travels a great deal, usually four days a week, so I would always care for and raise his kids.

Mann tries working at Sears but Franklin says he wants her to be a stay-at-home mom, so she quits. Despite her reluctance, he moves the family to the Florida Keys, away from her friends and family.

After we moved to Florida our marriage really began to deteriorate when Benn became so controlling. He controlled my whereabouts, the checkbook and everything about my life.

Mann’s mother writes that her daughter ‘loved Bennett Roof’s other children Amber and Dylann unconditionally as her own’. Dylann stayed with Mann and Franklin far more often than with his own mother, who was supposed to have him every other weekend,

I was afraid that love for these children clouded her judgement in getting involved with Bennett Roof. Paige was there for Amber and Dylann on the occasions where their own (mother) chose not to be, including church, driving Dylann to and from school and extracurricular activities.