On May 22, 2004 Our daughter was shot and killed by her live-in boyfriend Matthew Dickel; they had a 13 month old daughter whom was in the house the day of the shooting.

  Our daughter was 22 years old and full of life, her smile would light up the room and her laughter was a joyous one. On a sunny bright warm Saturday morning Matthew decided to take away a huge part of our life. When we got the call we could not believe what we where hearing. The screaming and yelling in the back round was horrifying. We were on way to our weekend getaway about a half hour away is when we got the call.

     It seem like eternity to get back home, we stayed on the phone the whole way back trying to make sense of what was going on, what happened and how it happened and why was this happing to us? Mom screaming," get him out of here, he just shot my granddaughter" "get the baby out of here" and dad saying “get him out of here, her dad is on his way". Dad is the one that found our daughter he helped 911 get to the house to help our daughter. All the screaming was heart wrenching I just wanted to be by our baby's side. I talked to a good friend on the phone while driving back and then the police and back to our friend being disconnected and calling back it went on and on. I was just hoping in the back of my mind that she was all right she will be just fine. We would have taken her any way just not dead. We would have taken care of her.

  We had to stop at the house to get our son; I turned the truck around while my husband ran in the house to get him. I can still see our son running to the truck and the look on his face that I will never forget. We finally made it to the hospital all the family was gathering awaiting on some news good new hopefully. Friend coming down to be with us, family gathering, the news spread like wide fire, finally the baby got there, a close friend had her to clean off the blood that she got on her, Leanda was holding the baby, she had splatters of blood every where on her so I was told from her mommy.

  All standing there waiting for someone to tell us what was going on? The Chaplin came in and we knew then it wasn't good news my heart sank, our son ran out Bill my husband went after him it all went crazy again, what are we going to do now? "Our little girl is going" Thinking about Hailey, Leanda's little girl, our granddaughter, what is going to happen with her? We have to protect her now. I called another friend, told him what had happened and told him we need to make sure health and human services don't come and get Hailey, so he call a lawyer to take care of it. We waited around for hours to see our daughter, when we were able to see her we could not touch her, that was hard not being able to hold our daughter. Not being able to hold her before letting her go some how was not right.

  She looked so defenseless with everything hooked to her,, bags on her hand, so the evidence could not be harmed. Blood on her face, the tub in her mouth. Covered up to her neck with a white sheet. We never dreamed in your wildness mind we would ever see one of your children like that gone before you, life isn't suppose to happen like that, but here we are and it did happen.

  We knew the relationship was bad because she was planning on leaving him; she just had to do it in her own way. We never thought he would kill her; beat and batter, yes but not kill her. There were several 911 calls to the house prior to that, the law enforcement would never do anything because she was too afraid to say anything, they just left. There was one morning in particular a neighbor had called 911, Matthew was pulling Leanda down the sidewalk by her hair telling her he was going to kill her if she didn't get back to the house, again there was nothing done.

  I went the prosecuting attorneys office and asked for help this was in October 2003. Well nothing was done. There was other times my husband, son, and I would get in the middle of the fighting and Leanda would always say we are going to make matters worse, so what where we to do. It seemed like we were all alone on this. I would talk to Leanda and she would listen and then one day she decided she had enough, so she came to me and asked if her dad and I will help her and the baby if she left Matthew and went back to college and with great ease I smiled and said you bet.

  So she enrolled in school, quit her job and was going to do it, leave him and make a life for her and the baby. Leanda thought she would be able to start school in the summer but had to wait tell fall. Matthew told Leanda she was going to get an "f...ing job" and my mouth dropped sense he never work though the whole relationship except about 3 or 4 month. Who was he to talk?

  That night Bill and I talked trying to figure out what had happed and why, what we going to do, how we where going to go on, we lost a part of our family. We always done everything together and now there is one missing. I had went and checked on the baby several times that night and there was one time I had walked in to check on her she was laying in our bed, there was a huge bright light in the room over my bed I know now it was Leanda looking over her baby.    

  Well now we have to make funeral arrangements for our little girl not knowing what to do, not knowing where to even start. It is like a really bad nightmare wishing you would wake up. I don't think we sleep or ate for days. The day of our daughter's viewing we had to go to the family court to get temporary custody of the baby, Bill had to set across the table from Matthew the monster that killed our daughter, what he was feeling at that time, well you can only imagine what was going through his mind. What he wanted to do to him, but he said Leanda was with him and grabbed his hand and walked him out of the room.

  We made it through that part of our ordeal now what about the rest, how we going to cope. For the next couple of days the prosecutor coming to our daughter’s house, investigators, news, ect. Bill and I started investigating ourselves, the things we were finding out was amazing. We found out that Matthew had pawned her ring to buy the gun to shoot our daughter with. We found other drug in the home that the police didn't find we found people that Matthew had told that he was going to kill her and how he was going to do it, among other things. Then to top all of that off we lost Bill's dad 8 days later of a major heart attack.

  Almost a year later our trial began. The state charged him with 1st degree murder and wanton and endangerment.  The State had a rock solid case, so we thought, the State examiner stated it was a homicide, the state's gun expert said that the gun had not been messed with and had no flows. Matthew said the gun fell of the table and discharged, which was a total lie. There were 3 witnesses that stated that Matthew said he was going to kill her. The employee from the pawnshop stated the Matthew can in to the pawnshop and stated he no longer needed the ring. Why would he say that if they were not splitting up? On the 911 tapes he stated "he just shot his old lady", but yet he said it fell off the table, and he also said the baby grabbed the gun, he also said he was playing Dirty Harry, among several of other reason's. Matthew never took the stand in his defense.

  The jury came back with a verdict of involuntary manslayer and wanton and endangerment. The room was silent everybody in misbelieve making sure we heard correctly. It was like another bad nightmare!  This truly was a real slap in the face not just for us Leanda's family and friend, but also for Leanda. How can someone do what he had done and get away with it? He literally got away with murder. Now what, what do we do? Where is the justice for Leanda or us we wonder now how we really do go on?

  Well we had to think about Hailey now, how we were going to make sure he will never get his murdering hands on her.  He was not going to be able to take away another family member he already took 2 and that was 2 to many.  So back to court we went for Hailey it took a year and a mess it was but we got that taken care of. We adopted her and changed her name. We wanted to leave Leanda on the Birth certificate they would not let us do it, but she will know any way who her real Mommy is. Now she calls her mommy, Mommy angel, and an angel she is.  We talk about her mommy all the time we make sure she is a part of Hailey every day life. We tell her what mommy angel liked and didn't like, how much she is like her mommy angel, what her mommy angel would say to her about the way she is. Most of all how much mommy angel loved her and how proud mommy angel would be of her. If you look out side at night and you will see a big bright star well that is "mommy angel" and the big fluffy clouds in the sky, well that is mommy angel holding you and giving you a hug.

  Now that Hailey is secure it was time to focus on Matthew again, he was not going to get away with what he has done. He has taken away a little girl's mommy, a sister, daughter, granddaughter, niece, cousin and a friend. So we went to Charleston WV and talked to the U.S. Attorney's Office. And that is where we are today. They have charges on him and we have his sentencing July 17, 2007. They have been wonderful, and very supportive. I just hope our out come will be a joyous one we will soon see. Keep us in your prayers and thoughts for we will need all the support we can get.     



Bill & Lynn Atkinson