Tina's Family Member
Appearances
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
I think when I first found out their names, Bradley Yon and Karen Blackledge, it made it more real. It was like, okay, this actually happened. I immediately looked them up on Facebook just so I could see their face. And I think at that point, my aunt and I had both done that and we were just crying and they looked exactly like how she described. It made me really sad for their families, honestly.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
It seemed like he didn't come from a very good place. I know he lived in Hannibal for a short amount of time. He lived in Springfield, Illinois. But I mean, to be honest, I didn't really care to know much about him. I didn't really, and I still don't have any empathy towards him or where he came from because at the end of the day, he made his own choices.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
The day they were arrested was, we were so glad that they were arrested and found and in custody because there's so many cases where the people aren't caught and the families don't get answers. But that was also the beginning of this terrible journey through trial.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
It makes me so mad. I just firmly believe she was not done here.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
Ultimately, I know that they did murder me.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
The very next day, so November 10th, I did see my grandma. I came out to my aunt's salon where my aunt and my mom and the detective were there. And I got to see my grandma for the first time since her attack. She looked beautiful. She put on makeup. She was definitely more put together than all of us combined. But I did see bruising on her arms.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
Even though she was collected, she was very in shock still. She was definitely trying to distract herself from her reality is what I could tell.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
At that point, my grandma had told me her kind of side of things. She did leave out details of the rape, and she did not tell me about the sodomy. And I think that just, she's a very private person and very dignified, and she didn't want people to know that, or she was embarrassed by that for whatever reason. None of this was her fault, but...
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
Just in the time, like she was 77, she was born and raised in a time where you just don't talk about that kind of stuff.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
She stayed somewhere else for a period of time.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
My whole family was just shook up. My uncles came to town. One lives in Springfield, Illinois, and one lives in Colorado. They came to town with their wives and just to kind of all be together and just make sure she was doing okay.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
She had my brothers coming and staying with her at hotels and I don't think she was dealing with it fully, but she was trying to push through because we were going into Thanksgiving and then she was really excited about Christmas coming up and was getting everything prepared for Christmas.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
We were getting my son ready for bed and she called me really hysterical. I couldn't really understand what she was saying. So I kind of told her, I was like, I need you to calm down and kind of walk me through what you're saying. And she just said that my grandmother had been raped at her house and that she was going to take her to the hospital.
This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me
4. A Fragile Justice
And she just always did. She never let anything affect her, at least outwardly. And she was so protective of us. She never wanted us to worry about her. She never wanted us to feel any pain about it. Even though that was inevitable, she just wanted us to try to move on from it. She wanted to move on from it.