Murder: When happens to someone in the family

What happened?

I was 17 years old and settling comfortably in my little apartment. It was Mother’s Day 1987. I thought that life was going pretty well until the 5 o’clock news hit. There it was, a picture of my 16 year old cousin with the headline “found murdered”. As I watched it in disbelief, the phone rang and it was my mother telling me that my cousin was found dead. At the funeral, it was the first time that I had seen my grandfather cry. The entire family was in a state of disbelief. A month later another girl was found murdered. The community thought that there was a serial killer in the area. Originally they thought they had found the suspect but lack of evidence had the case dismissed. In the late 80s DNA was not yet used to help solve murders. Because of the nature of the murder, the investigators preserved appropriate evidence in case DNA progress was made. In 2000 the RCMP and the OPP merged their databases and as the files were being sorted, my cousin and the other girl’s files matched fingerprints to a 1994 DWI charged Larry Runholm. The investigators watched him and when he threw his cigarette butt down, they collected it and were able to match it to both murders. He is now serving 15 years concurrently for the murder of the two girls.

How I survived/Road to Wellness

I found talking to people who had lost someone was the best way to get through the pain. I found that I could also help others because I had experienced the loss of a teen family member.
Divorce: from rainbow to dark cloud