Brigitte Harris was born on June 6, 1981, in Staten Island, New York, to Liberian immigrant parents. Her early childhood was marked by instability and neglect. When she was two years old, her mother abandoned her, leaving her in the care of her father, Eric Goodridge, who was a Liberian national residing in Bay Shore, Long Island. Goodridge, a strict and domineering figure, maintained traditional patriarchal values influenced by West African cultural customs.

After her father returned to Liberia, young Brigitte was shuffled among relatives in New York. She described her upbringing as deeply traumatic, marked by emotional and physical abuse from her grandmother and sexual abuse by a cousin. These experiences left long-term psychological scars and contributed to her developing trust issues and anxiety.

When Brigitte was a teenager, she and her sister Carleen Goodridge revealed that their father had been sexually abusing them for years. During a family trip to Liberia, Brigitte confronted her mother about the abuse, but her father dismissed the accusations, claiming she was mentally unstable. After moving out at age seventeen, Brigitte lived independently and worked as a security guard at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Despite trying to build a normal life, she continued to experience recurring emotional distress related to her past trauma.

By her mid-twenties, Brigitte had limited contact with her family. Her sister Carleen eventually reconnected with her, warning that their father had returned to New York and was attempting to reinsert himself into their lives. According to Brigitte, this contact reopened deep-seated fears and traumatic memories. When she learned that her father intended to take his young granddaughters to Liberia, she became terrified that he would sexually abuse them just as he had done to her and her sister.

Friends and mental health professionals later testified that Harris was suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and unresolved rage stemming from prolonged sexual trauma. Her fear that her father might harm others acted as the catalyst for the violent confrontation that followed in July 2007.

On July 28, 2007, Brigitte Harris confronted her father, Eric Goodridge, inside her apartment in the Rockaway section of Queens, New York. Goodridge, a 55-year-old Liberian immigrant, had allegedly expressed his intent to take his granddaughters back to Liberia against their mothers’ wishes. Harris, fearful and enraged, attempted to persuade him to abandon his plan. The conversation quickly escalated into a heated argument.

According to evidence presented in court, Harris handcuffed Goodridge to a chair and gagged him with a towel to silence him. At some point during the confrontation, she strangled him to death, either intentionally or while attempting to subdue him. After realizing he was dead, she retrieved a scalpel and castrated him—symbolically, according to prosecutors—believing she was “taking away his weapon.” Investigators later determined that Goodridge was likely already deceased when this occurred. Harris then disposed of the severed organ by throwing it under the Rockaway Boardwalk.

Following the killing, Harris phoned 911 to report what had happened but never went to the police station as she claimed she would. Instead, she called her sister, Carleen, and confessed to the killing. Carleen told her to come to her house, where she later contacted emergency services. Harris was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Richmond University Medical Center, where she was held for several weeks before being formally charged.

When Harris was discharged on August 16, 2007, she was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. She was detained at Rikers Island, where she became a highly publicized inmate. Her MySpace page, where she referred to herself as “Lady Vengeance” and “The Original Dark Angel,” was widely discussed in media coverage, adding to her notoriety.

Harris’s defense attorney, Arthur L. Aidala, took her case pro bono after being convinced of her long history of abuse. Both Brigitte and her sister detailed years of sexual violence committed by their father, a claim supported by their mother’s partial acknowledgment and other family statements. In interviews, Harris stated, “He said he was doing it because he loves me, and that is how fathers show love to their daughters.”

Two years after her arrest, Harris’s trial began in September 2009 in Queens Supreme Court. Prosecutors argued that the killing was premeditated, citing her online writings and research into the John and Lorena Bobbitt castration case. Harris testified in her own defense, stating that she acted out of fear that her father would abduct and abuse her nieces.

On September 30, 2009, after deliberation, the jury rejected the murder charge and found Harris guilty of second-degree manslaughter. One juror later stated, “None of us felt that she deserved murder charges or anything. So we decided on second-degree manslaughter.” Despite letters from jurors recommending leniency, Judge Arthur Cooperman sentenced her to five to fifteen years in prison—the maximum sentence allowed.

Brigitte Harris served three years in prison and was released on parole on August 13, 2012. During and after her incarceration, she received support from prominent figures, including Senator Chuck Schumer and state senators Diane Savino and Eric Adams, who spoke publicly about her case as an example of the justice system’s failure to address abuse survivors adequately.

Upon her release, Harris expressed regret for her father’s death but maintained that she never intended to kill him. She has since become an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence, expressing a desire to work with STEPS to End Family Violence, a New York–based advocacy group.