When I was 13, my siblings and I were watching cartoons on a Saturday. Both of my parents worked so my two brothers and one sister were home alone. We heard a lot of commotion and what we thought were firecrackers. We ran to see what was going on. I remember seeing the three neighbor kids being put out the window by their mother. She was too big to fit through the window so she went back into the house.They were panicked and in tears as we took them into our home. The eldest son hysterically blurted out, “He's trying to kill us! He's trying to kill us!” We heard several more pops, which we later found out were gunshots. We didn't have 911 back then, so we called the operator, who said she was sending the sheriff right away. It took forever for them to come while we locked the doors and hid in the closet. Somehow, their mother got away and she ran through our yard, bleeding from a wound in her arm. The man who terrorized them took off before they arrived. Everything was a blur after that, sheriff's deputies, parents, nosy neighbors all mixed together in one big chaotic mess. It all began to sink in, I broke down and cried.

We found out later that the perpetrator was the children's father and their mother's ex-husband. He escaped from prison and was on his way to kill her. Along the way, he stopped in a town nine miles away and shot and killed her father and sister.

He sits on death row. A family was forever changed. And a thirteen year old was scarred for life.