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Updated: 3:35 PM Jun 24, 2009
93-year-old victim's daughter wants answers
The daughter of an elderly woman who was killed last month says accused murderer Christopher Roalson was kind and polite and she knew him since he was four years old Posted: 11:53 AM Jun 22, 2009Reporter: Mary Rinzel Email Address: mary.rinzel@weau.com |
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The man who investigators say repeatedly stabbed and killed a 93-year-old woman knew his victim. It's a murder the sheriff calls a "thrill killing with satanic overtones."
27-year-old Christopher Roalson appeared via video conference in Sawyer County court Monday morning. His lawyer asked for time to prepare for a preliminary hearing. The judge kept Roalson's bail at $1 million.
The criminal complaint says Roalson says he told Irena Roszak to "hail Satan" as he repeatedly stabbed her.
Roszak’s daughter, Krista Muellner, held the last know photograph of her mother in the courtroom. It's a photo of her mom waving goodbye that was taken last year.
“I want to know why,” Muellner says. “Why did you do this to people you know? To friends you know? To kill somebody's mother..."
Muellner says Roalson was raised with her son. They played together and she was his teacher at Winter High School. She says he was always kind and polite and she never saw the anger it must've taken to kill her mother.
"To take somebody's life so easily without any qualms about it, I think that's pretty sad being that she lived all her life—through World War II and raised five children—to die this way. No, she did not deserve to die this way," Muellner tells us.
She says she'll be back at the Sawyer County courthouse for every single hearing. But, what's even harder than going there, she says is visiting the house where her mother was killed.
"I did plant the garden,” Muellner says. “I figure whoever buys the house, they'll have that garden and I take care of the flowers like she did."
It was a garden, Muellner says her mother cherished and still kept up. She says sometimes she struggled to keep up with the 93-year-old—especially shopping.
“If somebody needed money at the cash register—I remember that—a lady didn't have a dime or something and she just handed her the money. She didn't worry about it. That's the kind of person she was and that's the way I want her to be remembered,” Muellner says.
She says it was with her family, at the store and in her garden that Roszak's generosity shined the brightest.
"People would come to her garden, if they wanted dill or pickles, they would take them. She didn't care. If they wanted some flowers, she didn't mind. She liked people and she respected people and that's the way she wanted to die—being respected," Muellner says.
Roalson, and 15-year-old Austin Davis who's charged with being party to the murder, both remain in jail. Muellner says no form of justice will ever be enough and she'll never be able to forget how her mom died.
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