Post by CCADP on Aug 28, 2005 7:30:45 GMT -5
Waiting for Justice: Families talk about lost 'possibilities'
By BOB ARNDORFER
Sun staff writer
August 28. 2005 6:01AM
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ZOOM BRIANA BROUGH / The Gainesville Sun
A member of the Interfraternity Council repaints the names of the murder victims on the wall panel of SW 34th Street that memorializes the victims of the student murders.
oday, in the third of a three-part series, The Sun looks at the impact the student murders had on the Gainesville area, and those on both sides of the argument of whether lengthy stays on Death Row - like Rolling's - are a good idea.
As the years pass, it's impossible for the families of murder victims Christina Powell, Sonja Larson, Christa Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada, not to wonder where their loved ones might be today had they lived.
"She'd be 33 now," said Ada Larson, Sonja Larson's mother. "I think she'd probably have a career and a couple of little ones. When I see her friends now, it makes me very sad. When you see them with their careers and kids - they've gone on with life."
Her daughter and four other Gainesville college students were murdered in August 1990 by Danny Rolling. In 1993 Rolling confessed to the killings and the next year was sentenced to death. His sentence has been on appeal ever since - more than 11 years.
With the passage of time, the families wonder what might have been.
Mario Taboada said he and his wife sometimes discuss what his only sibling would be doing if he hadn't been murdered.
"I definitely see him as a father," Taboada said. "Being a Latin family, we're very tight-knit and have a lot of gatherings throughout the year. I have two children, 10 and 12, and his kids could have been playing with our kids.
"Losing Manny was taking away from my kids," he said. "My children lost that opportunity to have cousins from my side of the family."
Manny, who planned to major in architecture, would have been 38 now.
Laurie Lahey, 40, said her sister, Tracy Paules, also would have been 38, probably working as a lawyer and maybe having started a family.
"She was on a career track in law," said Lahey, a stay-at-home mother who lives near Dallas with her husband, daughter and three sons. "She was about to complete her senior year and was going to go to law school at the University of Florida.
"Later in life, I think, she would have been a mom," she said.
Lahey said she and her sister were extremely close. Every summer while she was at UF, Tracy went home to Miami and lived with her sister.
She said Tracy helped her pick her 13-year-old daughter's name - Taylor - two years before she was born.
"I really wish Taylor had met her Aunt Tracy," Lahey said. "Every girl needs an adult friend outside of their mom. It pains me very much. It doesn't feel like 15 years. I feel her every day and I ache for her every day."
Dianna Hoyt said she thinks a lot these days about what Christa's life would have been like.
"She wanted to be a forensic investigator, and she probably would have been in that (line of) work," she said. "I can see her having a young family. I think she would have been a happy person, because she had a lot of fun in life.
"All the things that go into a person's life stopped for Christa," Hoyt said. "There were so many possibilities for her."
Taboada spoke of the eternal nature of the loss all the victims' families have experienced. In photos he and some of the other families shared, that notion rings especially true.
One of the most telling images of time's passage is of the last Thanksgiving Sonja Larson spent with her family. Among those posing with her at the table near the roasted turkey are her father, Jim Larson, who died in 1996, and her sister-in-law, Carla Larson, who was murdered in 1997.
Carla Larson, 30-year-old wife of Sonja Larson's brother, Jim, and mother of their young child, was a construction engineer who lived in the College Park area of Orlando.
She was kidnapped June 10, 1997, after going to a Publix grocery during her lunch break from a job site near Disney World. Her nude body was found two days later and John Steven Huggins, convicted in 1999 of strangling her, remains on Florida's Death Row.
Other photos testify to the zest for life the families say the victims all had.
Sonja beside her little Honda Civic. Sonja with friends from her baseball team. Sonja with her dad.
Tracy with her sister, who shares her striking eyes. The sisters and their older brother, Scott Paules. Tracy on a bench outside UF's University Auditorium.
Manny in his No. 65 football uniform at Hialeah's American High School. Manny on a tube waterskiing, one of the great joys in his life. Manny and his best friends, Sergio, Marcus and Servando, mugging on Miami Beach - a week before Manny was murdered.
Christa grinning broadly in her Alachua County Sheriff's Office Explorer uniform. Christa in blue cap and gown at her high school graduation. Christa in a science lab.
(Christina Powell's family has always kept their grief and feelings private, so there are no family photos from them.)
Taboada said he regrets the one photo that didn't get taken. He and his mother had visited Manny in Gainesville a month before his brother was killed. Their mother wanted a photo of her two sons together, but Mario declined.
But he retains the memory of that day.
"In Gainesville Manny had so much energy and expectations, he was really excited to be there," Taboada said. "He was on cloud nine. He was ready to max those years out."
Bob Arndorfer can be reached at 352-374-5042 or arndorb@gvillesun.com
By BOB ARNDORFER
Sun staff writer
August 28. 2005 6:01AM
Font Size: 101112131415161718192021222324
ZOOM BRIANA BROUGH / The Gainesville Sun
A member of the Interfraternity Council repaints the names of the murder victims on the wall panel of SW 34th Street that memorializes the victims of the student murders.
oday, in the third of a three-part series, The Sun looks at the impact the student murders had on the Gainesville area, and those on both sides of the argument of whether lengthy stays on Death Row - like Rolling's - are a good idea.
As the years pass, it's impossible for the families of murder victims Christina Powell, Sonja Larson, Christa Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada, not to wonder where their loved ones might be today had they lived.
"She'd be 33 now," said Ada Larson, Sonja Larson's mother. "I think she'd probably have a career and a couple of little ones. When I see her friends now, it makes me very sad. When you see them with their careers and kids - they've gone on with life."
Her daughter and four other Gainesville college students were murdered in August 1990 by Danny Rolling. In 1993 Rolling confessed to the killings and the next year was sentenced to death. His sentence has been on appeal ever since - more than 11 years.
With the passage of time, the families wonder what might have been.
Mario Taboada said he and his wife sometimes discuss what his only sibling would be doing if he hadn't been murdered.
"I definitely see him as a father," Taboada said. "Being a Latin family, we're very tight-knit and have a lot of gatherings throughout the year. I have two children, 10 and 12, and his kids could have been playing with our kids.
"Losing Manny was taking away from my kids," he said. "My children lost that opportunity to have cousins from my side of the family."
Manny, who planned to major in architecture, would have been 38 now.
Laurie Lahey, 40, said her sister, Tracy Paules, also would have been 38, probably working as a lawyer and maybe having started a family.
"She was on a career track in law," said Lahey, a stay-at-home mother who lives near Dallas with her husband, daughter and three sons. "She was about to complete her senior year and was going to go to law school at the University of Florida.
"Later in life, I think, she would have been a mom," she said.
Lahey said she and her sister were extremely close. Every summer while she was at UF, Tracy went home to Miami and lived with her sister.
She said Tracy helped her pick her 13-year-old daughter's name - Taylor - two years before she was born.
"I really wish Taylor had met her Aunt Tracy," Lahey said. "Every girl needs an adult friend outside of their mom. It pains me very much. It doesn't feel like 15 years. I feel her every day and I ache for her every day."
Dianna Hoyt said she thinks a lot these days about what Christa's life would have been like.
"She wanted to be a forensic investigator, and she probably would have been in that (line of) work," she said. "I can see her having a young family. I think she would have been a happy person, because she had a lot of fun in life.
"All the things that go into a person's life stopped for Christa," Hoyt said. "There were so many possibilities for her."
Taboada spoke of the eternal nature of the loss all the victims' families have experienced. In photos he and some of the other families shared, that notion rings especially true.
One of the most telling images of time's passage is of the last Thanksgiving Sonja Larson spent with her family. Among those posing with her at the table near the roasted turkey are her father, Jim Larson, who died in 1996, and her sister-in-law, Carla Larson, who was murdered in 1997.
Carla Larson, 30-year-old wife of Sonja Larson's brother, Jim, and mother of their young child, was a construction engineer who lived in the College Park area of Orlando.
She was kidnapped June 10, 1997, after going to a Publix grocery during her lunch break from a job site near Disney World. Her nude body was found two days later and John Steven Huggins, convicted in 1999 of strangling her, remains on Florida's Death Row.
Other photos testify to the zest for life the families say the victims all had.
Sonja beside her little Honda Civic. Sonja with friends from her baseball team. Sonja with her dad.
Tracy with her sister, who shares her striking eyes. The sisters and their older brother, Scott Paules. Tracy on a bench outside UF's University Auditorium.
Manny in his No. 65 football uniform at Hialeah's American High School. Manny on a tube waterskiing, one of the great joys in his life. Manny and his best friends, Sergio, Marcus and Servando, mugging on Miami Beach - a week before Manny was murdered.
Christa grinning broadly in her Alachua County Sheriff's Office Explorer uniform. Christa in blue cap and gown at her high school graduation. Christa in a science lab.
(Christina Powell's family has always kept their grief and feelings private, so there are no family photos from them.)
Taboada said he regrets the one photo that didn't get taken. He and his mother had visited Manny in Gainesville a month before his brother was killed. Their mother wanted a photo of her two sons together, but Mario declined.
But he retains the memory of that day.
"In Gainesville Manny had so much energy and expectations, he was really excited to be there," Taboada said. "He was on cloud nine. He was ready to max those years out."
Bob Arndorfer can be reached at 352-374-5042 or arndorb@gvillesun.com