Rest in Peace, Jill.

http://www.indiana.edu/~alumni/iuaa/jillbehrman/20030313.html

They’ve positively identified remains as belonging to Jill Behrman, the college student from my town who disappeared in May 2000.

I didn’t know Jill, but I vividly remember when she disappeared. Her bike was found just down the road from my house, my husband spent hours searching for her (as did many, many other people), and there were frequent, discouraging updates almost every day. For months I had terrible, wrenching, heartbreaking nightmares of opening my front door in the night and finding her there–injured, terrified, but alive, alive! And I would have a brief moment of relief, before I realized it was just a dream.

That summer, when Jill’s birthday arrived, her friends and family had a service for her. I was working in my soap studio when I read the article about it. I was pregnant with my daughter, and I remember sitting down on the floor beneath the open window and putting my head in my hands and just sobbing in the sunshine, thinking of my own unborn daughter and what Jill’s parents must be enduring. I will never, ever forget a quote from her father about crying in the shower every day: “I never knew a person could cry so.”

Oh, Jill. I am so very, very sorry. May your family find comfort in knowing you are found, and may we all learn something from your brief presence in our world.

Another Bloomington resident here. My wife told me that they’d ID’ed her body when I got home after work. I feel terrible for her family, but I’m hopeful that the discovery of her body will give them some relief and will possibly give the authorities some clues on who did this.

I work at the IDS (the student newspaper at IU). I haven’t been here all that long (first year), so I don’t really remember when she disappeared or anything, but I do know we covered it an awful lot.

I’m the one who put the story on the page on Tuesday of the bones being found (of course, they didn’t know they were hers then…). I feel bad about it now, as it was on the third page, tiny little AP article, no attention whatsoever.

Tonight when I walked into the newsroom, everyone was gathered around the TV. I assumed they were all watching the IU basketball game, but as the screen came into view, I could see it was the news conference. We all watched for a while, then went back to work. It’ll be on the front page tomorrow.

I guess since we’ve covered the story for 3 years, we’ve worked up something of a rapport with the Behrmans. We called them tonight and they allowed us to come over and talk with them and take their picture. We were the only ones they let take their picture.

Apparently they’re being watched over quite well. There was a police car there making sure no one bothered them (and from what I heard, there were quite a few news organizations there).

I heard that as our photographer was leaving, Jill’s dad thanked us for covering this as well as we have over the last three years.

I didn’t really have anything to say with this post, just my experience tonight in the newsroom.

In high school, I had three good friends; we always hung out together. We were like a little club.

When I went to college, one of my friends, Cathy, moved to Texas to model. She did fairly well, had her own apartment & kitty cat, did lots of work in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Then one day she came up missing. Her apartment burned down, including kitty and tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of modeling clothes.

Someone said “oh she’s just run off”. I said, “no, they’ll never find her; someone abducted her”. Her car was found soon after, with blood in it ~ but not her blood.

Two years later her bones were found scattered across a field. There were so few remains that she was buried in a baby coffin.

I did’t attend the funeral but my friend Leslie did. She said Cathy’s mom was a basket case. Recently Cathy’s dad died. Leslie says that Cathy’s mom is being cared for by the brother; the mom has never been the same.

Rest in peace, Cathy and Jill. :frowning:

What sad, sad stories.

Ninety, I’m guessing the crime was never solved?

Big hugs for bodypoet and Ninety and anyone else who knows the searing, indescribable pain of grief.

Thanks, GfH. IIRC a serial killer was jailed for several deaths of coeds at various colleges near Cathy’s apartment; the authorities think he’s responsible for her murder as well, but there is a dearth of evidence to prove as much.

Unresolved grief is so tough. It’s still hard, after all these years (this was around 1985) to believe that she was snatched out of my life. I’ve had dreams where she appeared, and awoke to the dread reality that she’s no longer with us.

Far worse to be the parents, though. My heart goes out to all parents who have lost a child.