Victim Impact Statement at Angela Marinucci's sentencing

This is the impact statement I read at Angela Marinucci's sentencing. It's been a long, hard summer and I'm sorry it took so long to post this.

Victim Impact Statement by Joy Burkholder, sister of Jennifer Daugherty


My name is Joy Daugherty Burkholder. I am Jennifer Daugherty’s oldest sister. I am here today to speak to you about how Jennifer’s murder has affected my life. When Jennifer’s body was discovered and the elements of the crime were clear to my family, Amy Garris told us that we would have a chance to someday give an impact statement to the court. At that time, I thought about all of the things I was going to speak about. I had the rage, adrenaline and the absence of knowledge concerning Jennifer’s murder that fueled the fight. Now I am left with heartbreak, sadness and guilt that I was not a good sister to Jenny. Since her death, I have had to complete many tasks, which I should not have. Attempting to write about how this has affected me has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do yet. I can literally speak about Jennifer for days, but I’m uncomfortable to speak about myself. I just want the world to know my sister existed, she was wonderful and why she is gone. I have loved her for her whole life and will for the rest of mine. How can I possibly put 30 years onto a few pages?

My daughters are left without an aunt who adored them. They will forget her more and more over time, until she is just a person in pictures. She is no longer their Aunt Jen, they call her “the Jennifer that died.” My daughter, Bailey, was 4 when Jennifer was murdered. She is now almost 6. She says, “Jen was the sweetheart of our family. She was fun and she made me laughand she tickled me.” Breanne was almost 6 when Jennifer was murdered. She saw Jennifer’s face on TV before we could stop it. She was so excited that her Aunt Jen was famous. The next day she was sad because she said she hoped no one killed her. We thought we had done a good job shielding our children from details, but then she asked me if it hurts to be stabbed. My 7 year old daughter knows how Jennifer was killed. The youngest victim in our family is my nephew, Dylan. He is 2 years old. He will never know Jennifer or remember how much she loved him.

My life has changed drastically. I’m forced to live the life of a stranger, I am no longer who I once was. I struggle each day to stay motivated to participate in my own life. I don’t sleep much and when I do I have nightmares about my sisters murder. I have lost friends because of these changes and I can’t blame them. I have forgotten what Jennifer’s voice sounds like, and I hate that I know Angela Marinucci's. I hate the snow, it makes me think of my sisters frozen body. I no longer enjoy my hobbies of taking photographs and scrap booking my children’s lives. I can’t eat pork anymore because it makes me physically sick. Christmas lights are not decoration, they were used to keep Jennifer bound. Little Red Wagon was my favorite nail polish color. Now it’s just what was poured on her face. I was once a happier person and I didn’t worry so much. Now, I keep my doors locked during the day and I’m terrified to leave my children out of my sight. It’s a terrible feeling, constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s still so hard for me to believe that this has happened. I wish that this is somehow a huge mistake. I don’t understand how something like this happened to my family in a good community. My faith has been stolen. I struggle with how could God let this happen to my sister? I am left with the guilt of our last conversation, where I yelled at her because I was late. School was cancelled, I had to dig my car out of the snow and I was running late to work. The last thing I said to her was, “I’m late and I don’t have time for you.” She called a little later to apologize to me and she had done nothing wrong. She wanted to spend the night at my house that weekend and I just blew her off. I spent that weekend planning her funeral.

I’d like to speak on Greensburg’s behalf. I can’t imagine how this has affected the people that live here. I grew up in this town, not far from this exact spot. As a parent, I can only imagine how the parents of local children are changed. People come to Greensburg because of good schools and low crime rates, only to have a mutilated body found on school property. Not only does Angela Marinucci owe my family an apology, she owes one to the people of Greensburg. She stole my sister and she stole their sense of security.


I am constantly mourning who Jennifer should have been but never will be. She wanted so badly to be a wife and mother someday. And the sad part is, I don’t think she was ever truly loved by a man. She was days away from getting her own apartment in Scottdale. She was excited to pick out curtains and dishes. I was happy for her, I just wanted her to have the life she deserved. One of her dreams was to be a mechanic. That dream will never come true. I will never get another Christmas list from her or buy her another gift. There are no more birthdays or holiday gatherings. The emptiness left by her absence is larger than I can quantify. Our family dynamic is disrupted. My family is forever changed and we are stuck, unbalanced.


I can’t ever lose the image of Jennifer’s bruised face and her throat cut. I am unable to forget the images of her body left misshapen and unnatural from rigor. I have seen the inside of my sisters body. She was stabbed in the head. She was raped. She was forced to eat and drink horrible things. She was never a person. She was an object of torment and sick amusement. Her body was in such bad shape, that we were not able to identify her in person.

I had to plan a funeral and what to do about her body. The thought of her being buried like that made me sick. I couldn’t imagine her body spending eternity like that. Then the thought of cremating her was just as bad. I have had to make choices that people make everyday, but this was just wrong. I never should have had to do this. I am the oldest sister and I should have died first, many years from now. Instead, she was cremated and what was left of her has been placed into a blue and white marble box.

I am going to close with what 7 minutes means to me. It used to be the time it took to steam vegetables in the microwave, how long it took me to start a new load of laundry, the time it takes me to walk my daughter to the bus stop and walk back home. It takes 7 minutes to bake a tray of cookies, design a scrapbook page, for Zoey to eat her dog food or to pay a bill online. Now, 7 minutes is how long my sister laid on a bathroom floor alone, waiting to die.

Your honor, it has taken me a year to write this statement. I had no idea what I should say or how to begin. In my research, it said to request restitution if I wished to. I have no idea if you can even do that in this court right now, but I am requesting that you order Angela Marinucci to pay $3,625 to my family for lost wages, childcare costs and traveling expenses. This dollar amount would also include the vacation time my husband had to use so that he could attend the trial and hearings. I can not put a dollar amount on the pain and suffering that my husband, children and I have been living with. I also request you to order Angela Marinucci to serve her sentences consecutively.

Thank you.