Our Story

Violence is everywhere and no one is immune from the horror! This is our story: January 29, 1999, in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Yorkshire, Virginia; my two teenager daughters, Stacie age 16 and her sister, Kristie age 14, were brutally attacked in our home!

During an attempted rape Stacie fought desperately to fight off her attacker. She lost the battle and was murdered, when the attacker pulled a knife and pierced her heart. Kristie upon arriving home two hours later, was met at her own back door by the murderer. Unsuspecting, she entered her home and upon finding her sister, was forced to the basement. She was raped, bound by her own shoelaces, strangled, both wrists cut, stabbed twice, and her throat repeatedly slashed, where she was left for dead.

This is our journey. Upon receiving this heart wrenching news, I was instantly thrown into a state of shock. My oldest daughter had been murdered. A parent's worst nightmare. As if that was not enough, I was told my youngest daughter was not expected to live. My life was over! The attacker of my two young teenage girls, not only pierced the heart of my eldest daughter, but pierced my heart!

I became consumed by a grief so heavy, it shrouded me in complete darkness. That night, as I sat by my youngest daughter's bedside, who had endured over five hours of surgery, I prayed for her life and healing. Never taking my eyes from Kristie's face, listening to the monitors and machines pumping oxygen into her lifeless body, and holding her hand; I prayed. Pouring my heart out to God, pleading with Him, not to let her die.

You see, Stacie and Kristie, my beautiful girls, had come face to face with evil. I could not wrap my mind around this horrible act of evil. I was completely numb and helpless.

By the grace of God, Kristie survived the attack. Together, stumbling blindly through each second of the day we found ourselves at Stacie's funeral. A Jr. ROTC cadet at her high school, Stacie was given a full military honors burial by her fellow comrades.