Pains of Jill Behrman's numerous mourners

The IDS and other local newspapers have reminded all of us of the May 2000 disappearance and reported death of Jill Behrman with headlines like: "Jill Behrman still making a difference." My family and I were encouraged by aspects of these news reports that revealed that investigators were "getting very close" to solving the mystery of Behrman's disappearance.\nOur family's fervent prayer is for an ultimate closure, whereby there would be an arrest, trial and conviction of the one (or those) responsible for Behrman's death. Already, my family and I were gratified in reading that Eric and Marilyn Behrman have left their daughter's room intact. Most certainly, there are many of us out there who have been very deeply touched by Behrman's disappearance and death. \nWhen Behrman was reported missing in her young age, my two young sons were barely five and three-years-old. When they started a summer camp at the Bloomington YMCA, they tearfully returned to our home with yellow armbands to remember Behrman. To them, it was unfair for Behrman's family to lose its only daughter and one of their only two children. Endlessly, our sons asked questions about Jill. During family prayer time, we said endless prayers for Jill's safe return home.\nOur two sons were sad that Jill was not found before they had to depart for Croatia, where their mother was to start a year of Fulbright research and teaching at the University of Zagreb. Yet, our two young sons calmly and variously made it clear that they were not happy to leave Bloomington until their "beloved Jill" was found alive. As parents, we assured them that the local authorities as well as Jill's parents and the entire community would continue to do their best in the search for the missing IU student.\n"We want to be in town when Jill is found," Kwadwo, our now 9-year-old son, said tearfully at the time. Subsequently, the two boys and my spouse left for Croatia. And any time I phoned them in their Zagreb apartment, our sons were quick to ask if Behrman had returned home alive, with the most moving part of it all being when they had to meet the late U.S. Congressman and former Bloomington Mayor Frank McCloskey at Zagreb Airport. \nI participated in an IU Serbo-Croatian language and cultural immersion program with Mr. McCloskey. Therefore, on his way to Slovenia (via Croatia), the former mayor had agreed to bring some much-needed English language books, research items, toys and typical American cookies to my spouse and our two young sons in Zagreb. McCloskey delivered the items to my family at the Zagreb Airport in the Spring of 2001 and was amazed by the unlimited concern of our two sons for Jill.\nWhen my two sons saw some of these headlines in the IDS concerning community support for Jill, they wanted to know if our family, too, can register their sorrow about Behrman's disappearance, at least to assure the Behrman family that they are not alone in their mournful pain, as there are many of us out there grieving with them, including my family! The only comforter we still have is God, who knows best!