Daily Herald | Man gets 48 years for killing Ingleside teen
Killer’s, teenager’s families speak of the toll of 2004 fatal stabbing
By Tony Gordon |
Another painful chapter in the murder of Elizabeth Willding came to a close Monday, but her friends and family say they’ll always be haunted by her death.
The family of her killer — 25-year-old Adam Christenson — feels the same way.
Willding was brutally murdered in 2004 when she interrupted Christenson’s second burglary of her family’s Ingleside home in as many days.
“I cannot believe that the last time I saw my daughter alive I was holding her and assuring her she was safe in her own home,” said her mother, Gigi Willding, at Christenson’s sentencing hearing Monday. “I live with the fact that I assured my daughter she was safe that day.”
Christenson was sentenced to 48 years in prison Monday for stabbing Elizabeth more than 40 times in a rage fueled by the mental illness he had suffered from for years. Christenson has a significant history of mental illness, including confinement in a state hospital for a year after being found unfit to stand trial in 2005.
The crime has sent shock waves through his family as well.
“You think you could have done more (to help Adam), but we tried,” David Christenson testified at his son’s sentencing hearing. “We had hoped we had done everything we could have, but obviously we did not.”
A stream of family and friends took the witness stand to speak of Elizabeth Willding and the promise that was destroyed when she was murdered July 14, 2004.
She was a National Honor Society member, star soccer and volleyball player, and emotionally wise beyond the 16 years she lived. Witnesses said Elizabeth touched all she came in contact with.
She excelled at the fine arts and was a singer and actor at both Grant High School and the PM&L Theater in Antioch.
Stephanie Willding said Elizabeth was “the glue that held our family together” and that she lives her life in honor of her late sister.
“Every day I try to live the best life I can because Liz cannot,” Stephanie said. “She was going to do great things.”
A young Adam Christenson was on that same path early in his life, his family members told Circuit Judge James Booras.
Adam Christenson excelled in school and on the athletic fields, much the same as his victim, and also shared an ability to make friends quickly.
“He was the curly-haired, freckle-faced, all-American boy,” his sister Jennifer Stoeck said. “He excelled at everything he did and seemed to be making new friends every day.”
But the clouds darkened as Adam Christenson entered his sophomore year of high school, and he slipped further into the grip of mental illness that several attempts at treatment could not cure.
In the months before the murder, Adam Christenson had become listless, was abusing drugs and took to burglarizing the Willding house for drug money, authorities said.
Christenson pleaded guilty but mentally ill last month in exchange for a sentence of between 20 and 60 years.
Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Mermel asked for the full amount so the sentence “would speak out and says that society condemns” what Christenson did.
Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant asked for something in the 40-year range “to balance the loss the victim’s family feels with the loss that Adam’s family feels.”
Booras said he considered the losses on both sides of the murder but also saw there was a difference.
“The Christenson family will be able to visit their son and speak with him as the years go by,” Booras said. “Any conversation the Willding family has with Elizabeth will be one-sided.”
When he finished his testimony, David Christenson was walking back to his chair in the gallery when Dr. Steven Willding, Elizabeth’s father, reached out to him.
The two men embraced, whispered something to each other, and then David Christenson slowly walked away.