Submitted photoWhile authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding Katherine Sinclair's death, her mother made the decision to donate her organs to a beloved neighbor. 

While details surrounding the death of Katherine Elizabeth Sinclair remain murky, her love of the outdoors and fishing lives on in the form of an organ donation to a beloved neighbor. 

Madeline Herrington, of Stonewall, remembered her daughter as someone who loved the outdoors and smiled all the time. A tomboy, Sinclair frequently went boating, fishing and four wheeling with her constant companion, a 14-year-old dog named Duke, and lived in her own house in Pachuta. 

“If she bought a cheeseburger, (Duke) would get a bite, too,” Herrington said. “That was her baby.”

Sinclair, 23, died on June 2 from a gunshot wound sustained the day before. The Laurel Police Department found Sinclair, still alive, in a residence on Windemere Boulevard in Laurel and took her to a local hospital. Police arrested a suspect but later released the suspect with no charges filed, according to a news release from the Laurel Police Department.

Online, rumors fly about Sinclair’s death, the role of the suspect, whether the suspect cleaned the scene and how police responded to the death. The Laurel Police Department said an autopsy has been completed but declined to reveal more information about the ongoing investigation.

Herrington cannot publicly speak about the investigation into her daughter’s death but spoke openly about her decision to donate her daughter’s organs to several strangers and one family friend.

“They had her on life support. They did a CAT scan and said there was no brain activity,” Herrington said.

Though Sinclair hadn’t expressed her opinions on organ donation, Herrington, an organ donor, asked Sinclair’s father to consider it.

“They told us that she was so young and she could save a lot of lives,” Herrington said. “I told (Sinclair’s father), ‘If it was one of my kids and they were sick I would want a miracle.'”

Herrington and Sinclair’s father donated “everything except her eyes, skin and bones” with only one request – that beloved neighbor “Uncle Rudy” received one of Sinclair’s kidneys. 

Curtis Dandridge, also known as “Uncle Rudy,” traveled from Stonewall to Meridian for dialysis three days a week, waking up at 4:30 a.m. and staying for hours during his dialysis treatment for 14 years.

The day after Herrington made the decision to donate Sinclair’s organs, Dandridge got a call to come in for testing – the kidney was a perfect match.

Herrington went to the hospital for the surgery, waiting outside. A nurse came out and told her, without knowing her connection, that “you couldn’t ask for a better match. I think it’s just the prettiest kidney I’ve ever seen.”

Dandridge can now return to one of his favorite hobbies, something he and Sinclair both had in common: fishing.

“Now he’s going to fish,” Herrington said, close to tears. “And my daughter loved to fish.”

Herrington said she saw Dandridge every day, adding that one of his biggest changes would be his gum habits.

“He went around with bubble gum in his pockets and he used to give it to all the kids in the neighborhood,” Herrington said. Now, at risk for diabetes, “I guess he’s going to have to buy sugar free.”

Sinclair had finished a degree as a pharmacy tech but returned to school to study nursing at Meridian Community College because Herrington said Sinclair wanted to help people.

Herrington said Sinclair loved people and loved animals but loved her dog, Duke, most of all.

“She’d give you the shirt off her back,” Herrington said. “But she celebrated his birthday on her birthday. She bought him a cake. ‘Happy Birthday, Duke.’ It was more about him than it was about her. He was the love of her life.”

In parting, Herrington simply asked for others to be organ donors and said she’d continue waiting for justice in the death of her daughter.

When told Sinclair was well loved she agreed.

“She was (well loved),” Herrington said. “She still is.”