Alice Donovan

Some time around November 14, 2002, my husband and I invited some friends over for pizza. One of them said he and his roommate would drop by for a few minutes, then they were off to try and look for the roommate's aunt, Alice Donovan, who had been abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot.

To make a long story short, we ended up joining them. It turned out there was really nothing we could do to help, other than offer moral support to the family. Alice's younger daughter took it especially hard. At one point, I was alone in the room with her. She began absently pulling at a small hole in the sweatshirt she was wearing, then eventually tore it off herself -- piece by piece (she was wearing another shirt underneath). I will never forget that sight.

Two weeks later, Branden Basham and Chadrick Fulks, two escapees from a Kentucky prison, were arrested in the case after being identified from a security tape. They confessed to killing Alice, but they refused to reveal the location of her body. Fulks gave the police at least four different stories, all of which proved false.

The last I heard was that Fulks had been given the death penalty. Basham was to be tried later. These men are also responsible for the abduction and murder of a young woman in West Virginia. To my knowledge, Alice's body has still not been found. She was a 44-year-old wife, mother, and grandmother who was loved deeply. My heart goes out to her family, and I pray that her body will be found soon so they can put her to rest.

It's so great that tapes are available these days, so that monsters like this can be identified. I'm sorry to hear the story, though. Very sad. If only they'd bring the family peace by telling them where she is.