“Think of what Connor Scott has stolen from us,” Leslie Roberts, the mother of 20-year-oldKaylyn Whitaker, wrote in her victim impact statement, which was provided to PEOPLE before the sentencing. Roberts described her daughter as “a radiant life that was maliciously snuffed out before her time.”
“Not only did he forever steal Kaylyn’s tomorrows, he stole ours,” Roberts said. “Not only did he steal Kaylyn’s possibilities, he has stolen ours.”
courtesy Leslie Roberts
The twist came as authorities who long suspected his guilt were drawing up charges to arrest him for the murder, Ed Parkinson, of the Illinois state’s attorneys appellate prosecutor’s office, previously told PEOPLE.
But still his confession caught those authorities and Kaylyn’s parents off guard.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage?Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
“The initial concern was suicide versus homicide,” forensic pathologist Dr. Roland Kohr told PEOPLE. With no definitive evidence, he listed Kaylyn’s manner of death as “undetermined.”
But doubts arose from the start. Kaylyn was right-handed; the bullet to her head struck her left side. Not until 10 months later, after more ballistics tests on the .45 Glock pistol found at the scene, did Kohr change his ruling to “homicide.”
When the criminal case stalled, a frustrated Roberts and Kaylyn’s father, Dave Whitaker, eventually took their calls for answers to local media.
Clark County Sheriff’s Department
That episode echoed the controlling behavior Connor sometimes displayed with Kaylyn, according to her friends and family. “He would continually check on her, making sure she was doing what she said she was,” says Roberts. “He didn’t like her being with her friends.”
Although the couple who began dating during Kaylyn’s senior year in high school briefly broke up over his behavior, Connor relented and Kaylyn accepted his proposal. Roberts raised concerns about Kaylyn’s move-in with her fiancée while she was enrolled in college, but “if she had her mind set on something, she did it,” says her mom.
In her victim impact statement, Roberts recalled a favorite saying of Kaylyn’s — “You only have one life, use it” — and her daughter’s passions for art, friends and family, including her older brothers Kaleb, 26, and Jacob, 31.
“It torments us greatly, the question of whether or not Kaylyn knew that her life was going to end,” she wrote. “We pray that she knew not what had befallen her.”
Among the artwork her daughter left behind, Roberts said, is a sculpture of a porcelain painted heart with wings she titled “Wings of Love.”
“We take comfort the best we can in believing our Kaylyn — our beautiful, intelligent, kind-hearted Kaylyn — is waiting for us on the ‘Wings of Love’ in heaven,” Roberts noted.
source: people.com
