‘You have robbed our entire family’
Relatives of murdered teenager deliver emotional victim impact statements
Hannah Leflar loved Nickelback and The Walking Dead. She drew pictures of animals and had a hunger for learning. And she had a smile that her loved ones said could light up a room.
Court heard the bright 16-yearold was in line to be named best student of the year at school.
Instead, she arrived home from school on a cold January afternoon in 2015 to find her ex-boyfriend lying in wait. On the floor of the bedroom shared by her mother and stepfather, she was stabbed to death, her stepfather finding her lifeless body upon his return home from work that day.
Two years on, Hannah’s mom, Janet Leflar, told the court she and her husband now sleep in the basement.
“As a mother, I almost feel pity for you, that you were obviously not loved ...” Janet said, facing the 19-year-old killer who remained largely stone-faced throughout the reading of 12 emotional victim impact statements on Friday.
“But what you’ve done has overshadowed any pity I may have had.”
The statements were provided during a hearing to determine whether the killer should be sentenced as an adult or as a youth, having pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Hannah’s Jan. 12, 2015, death.
He cannot be identified unless sentenced as an adult.
Family and friends of Hannah provided statements that touched on their memories of their loved one and the indescribable pain they have had to endure since Hannah’s loss brought an end to any future memories they might have built with her.
“You have robbed our entire family of the pleasure of watching a beautiful young woman grow into the amazing woman that she would have become,” said Heather Josephson, reading a statement on behalf of herself and husband Dan, cousin to Hannah’s father.
“We will never be able to share with her parents the joys they would have experienced as she graduated, found a career, found love, married or started her own family. Her parents will never experience the joys and love of the grandchildren that Hannah may have blessed them with. You have stolen all of these things from them and from the rest of our large family.”
Hannah’s uncle Barry wrote that he had somehow managed to accept the deaths of loved ones to illness and accident, but has found no way to achieve a similar acceptance with Hannah’s murder.
“Hannah did nothing to deserve this and there is no way I will ever be able to accept this tragedy,” he wrote, adding — as many others did — that he’s haunted by the thought of what Hannah must have endured in her final moments.
Her parents and step-parents wrote of the guilt they feel for having been unable to protect their daughter — the only child to Janet and her ex-husband Jeff — while extended family and friends wrote of the helplessness and hopelessness they feel as they struggle to deal with profound grief.
And while evidence was presented during the hearing discussing the 19-year-old’s history of depression, Hannah’s family described their own experience with it since the murder.
Statements from Hannah’s parents and step-parents described their struggle through empty days without their daughter.
“Some days it seems like a very, very bad dream that will hopefully end as soon as we wake up,” said stepmother Lore.
“Other days, nothing about losing our sweet Hannah seems real because we’re too numb to think and we won’t allow our minds to go there. And there are times when the pain is so raw and so real that we don’t think we can go on for another minute ...”
Hannah’s parents and step-parents said they cling to the hope of one day being reunited with Hannah.
“Then, and only then, will our pain end,” Lore said.
During the hearing, court heard the killer has frequently threatened suicide, having said once that he hoped it would give him the chance to see Hannah again and apologize.
The victim’s mother had other ideas.
“I hope to see my daughter again,” she said, choking back tears. “I hope to hold her again. And I hope to be able to say how sorry I am for not being able to protect her.”
Then, she turned to her killer and said: “But wherever she is, you won’t be going there. And I don’t believe you have the capacity to appreciate what you’ve done and how you’ve taken away such a precious thing.”
Closing arguments are set for Tuesday.
We will never be able to share with her parents the joys they would have experienced as she graduated, found a career, found love, married or started her own family.