Cedar City woman, son victims in killing spree
They are preparing to bury Kilynna, 20, next to her 2-year-old son, Dayan, in Cedar City Monday, a week after their bodies were discovered in Rock Falls, Ill., the victims of a suspected serial killer.
"We're holding up as best we can, considering it hit so close to heart. She was so loved and missed," Blake's older sister, Gleniecia Lewis, told the Deseret News Wednesday.
Kilynna and Dayan were among eight slain in a multi-state killing spree that ended Tuesday when Nicholas T. Sheley, 28, was arrested smoking a cigarette outside a Missouri bar. Sheley is also accused of killing Blake's fiance, Brock Branson, 29, and his roommate, Kenneth Ulvey, 25.
In an interview with the Deseret News, Lewis spoke of her younger sister as an outgoing, "well loved person, liked by everybody."
Born and reared in Cedar City, Blake met her fiance while working.
"He was a truck driver. They kind of hit it off," Lewis said. "They started dating, always first boyfriends you're skeptical, but he was someone I could see her with."
She had Dayan from a previous relationship. Lewis described the boy as playful and happy.
Blake and Branson stayed in Cedar City until about four months ago, when they moved to Branson's hometown of Rock Falls, Ill., so he could have visitation with his 10-year-old daughter.
"They were going to get married and make that their hometown," Lewis said.
Now, the family is writing obituaries and talking with police investigators. Branson's father told the Quad City Times newspaper on
Wednesday that his son was beaten so badly that authorities were only able to identify him through a tattoo on his arm. Dallas Branson said family members were told very little about the slayings. He told the newspaper that "they don't want to botch this at all."
Sheley is accused of killing eight people in two states, from a toddler to a 93-year-old, in what police describe as "blunt force trauma." He appeared briefly in an Illinois court in connection with one of the slayings following his capture after an intense, nationwide manhunt.
Police were looking into the possibility that the rampage was fueled by drugs, but had no way of knowing. Sheley's wife, Holly, told Sauk Valley Newspapers that her husband was a good man — when he was clean and sober.
"This is not Nick," she told the newspaper after authorities sought Sheley in connection with the first killing. "Without drugs, without alcohol, Nick is kindhearted. He's caring. He has respect for people."
Recent comments
Gad bless the familys of the peaple that were killed. The man that...
Rest in peace | July 3, 2008 at 4:08 p.m.
May God have mercy on this man. No words can express the loss that...
Posters are playing God | July 3, 2008 at 4:36 a.m.
"Without drugs, without alcohol, Nick is kindhearted. He'...
No Excuses | July 3, 2008 at 3:40 a.m.
