Family Of Slain 10-Year-Old Is Left Wondering Why

TUCSON, AZ — Sebastian Foye was a happy and healthy 10-year-old who loved karate, sleepovers with his best friend Ben, listening to Ariana Grande and riding his bike through his Tucson neighborhood.

That was all taken way Dec. 18 when Sebastian was killed by his father, Phillip Foye, as he slept in his bed, police said. Foye later turned the gun on himself, before the Tucson Police Department and SWAT team could respond to the home on East Palmetto Pointe Trail, police said.

Sebastian leaves behind his mother, Rachel Babcock, her fiance, Lawrence DeVoto, and countless loved ones who won’t forget his huge, ever-present smile.

“It’s unfortunate that a mom had to pick out a casket for her murdered son instead of picking out Christmas presents,” DeVoto told Patch just one day after Sebastian’s funeral service.

Babcock, DeVoto and their parents are doing the best they can during a difficult time and taking it day by day, he said. But not knowing why Sebastian was taken from them is one of the most difficult parts of their grief.

At around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 18, Phillip called Babcock while she was with DeVoto and screamed, “I’m finally going to win! I killed our son.” When Babcock demanded to speak with Sebastian, Phillip texted a picture of Sebastian with a gunshot wound to the head instead. DeVoto, a retired Army captain, said he called 911 with a description of the photo.

“It was the cruelest thing anybody could do,” DeVoto said.

Though Sebastian’s parents were divorced in 2019, the family still lived together in their rental home, but Babcock and Foye lived separate lives. Foye had just been fired from a job at Amazon and was due to move out on Dec. 23.

DeVoto said he previously worked at Child Protective Services and is trained to recognize signs of abuse or violence. He never suspected a thing, he said. There was no custody battle or note left to explain Foye’s actions, leaving the grieving family in disbelief.

Companies including Evergreen Funeral Home, which allowed the family to bury Sebastian before they could afford to pay for the funeral costs, and Griffin's Trauma Scene Cleanup, which cleaned up the crime scene, have been helping to make the tragedy easier to bear, as has the local Veterans Affairs hospital’s mental health services. Babcock’s friends Annie and Angela have also been her rocks, according to the family.

Babcock has been forced to postpone the start of a new job as a nurse at Banner University Medical Center while she deals with the tragedy of losing her son and has had to break her lease on the home where the killing took place. The rental company, Acacia Partners, has also saddled her with a nearly $700 bill for the door the SWAT team was forced to break through to enter the home, due no later than Jan. 1. The company did not respond to Patch’s request for comment.

The family has started a GoFundMe page on her behalf to help cover funeral costs, replace furniture damaged during the crime and start a scholarship fund for kids unable to afford the karate lessons Sebastian loved so much.

“Having a funeral and interment planned very quickly at the holidays is not inexpensive,” DeVoto said. “I’m trying to handle as much as I can for Rachel’s sake, so she can focus on grieving.”

Sebastian’s family is doing their best to find moments of happiness every day, which is just how he would want it, according to a story DeVoto told.

The 10-year-old gave his mother a hand-drawn Mother’s Day card in May, featuring a smiling face and only the word ‘happy.’ When his mother asked him why he didn’t write ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ on the card, Sebastian responded that she should be happy every day because she was his mom.

“We are focusing on celebrating what we have and what we had with Sebastian, and the time we had with Sebastian,” DeVoto said. “We try to not focus on what we lost, but try to celebrate and remember what we had.”

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