February 6, 2008
It has been nearly four years since Gigi Willding found her daughter’s bloodied and motionless body on the floor of her home in Ingleside.
And the memories of that day are burned into her mind. As much as Willding wants to erase the moment she knew 16-year-old Elizabeth Willding would never speak to her again, it is now impossible.
The Willding family.
(Special to the News-Sun)
“I wonder if I had come home a little earlier that maybe I could have saved her,” Willding told The News-Sun on Tuesday.
The past three years, six months and 18 days have been tough, said Willding, who keeps a running tab of the time since Elizabeth was stabbed to death on July 14, 2004.
On Monday, the task grew tougher. There would be no trial and no testimony against Adam Christenson.
During a hearing in Lake County Circuit Court, Christenson, 25, entered an Alford plea — not admitting guilt but accepting the strength of the case against him.
Judge James Booras set sentencing for March 17.
“I feel robbed that I will not be able to say all the things I want to,” said Willding, who was expecting a jury to decide Christenson’s fate during a trial. “I wanted closure, but I will not have any now.”
Willding said she had so many questions to ask regarding the sequence of events that led to the death of her daughter.
“There are so many questions that will go unanswered now,” she said. “I needed that trial for closure. I don’t know how to feel.”
Although she plans to write a victim impact statement prior to Christenson’s sentencing to explain the effect Elizabeth’s death has had on the family, Willding still can’t come to grips with sitting in court knowing that her daughter’s killer will see many more days.
“I’ve been to that court 40 to 50 times, and it is always different. Sometimes I can’t stand to look at (Christenson) him,” she said. “Sometimes I look at his arms and think about what he did to my daughter.”
Christenson will soon be sent to prison, maybe for the rest of his life, but it will not mend those scars.
“Elizabeth will not be able to come back, but (Christenson’s) family will be able to visit him in prison.”
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