The Jill Behrman murder trial is over. Jon Myers was found guilty in 50 minutes.
Jill Behrman's father said "closure" would only happen if Jill were still alive. I cannot think of him without choking up, the thought of a father searching for his daughter, finding out she'd been brutally murdered- it's incomprehensible to imagine how he and his wife get through each day without dropping into a puddle of tears.
Bloomington has taken Jill's murder personally. There is an annual 1/2 marathon named after her, there is a cancer treatment facility named after her, and in general I think I can say we all think of her as our kid now. We lived for years knowing first that she was probably dead, then that she was certainly dead, then finally that she had actually been murdered, and quite probably raped and beaten. Many in town shared my sadness upon finding out the real story. Up until then, I felt that in some way her death had been tragic, but not brutal, that someone had collided with her on her bike and then panicked and disposed of her body. I had held out hope for her parents that they could at least live with the death of their daughter as an accident. Instead, the truth was that she had been abducted, brutalized and killed.
I'm a dad. I have a daughter. There is nothing more fearful to me than her facing danger without me being able to protect her. God rest your soul Jill, and bring comfort to her mother and father.