Parents of slain IU student testify

The parents of slain IU student Jill Behrman were called to the witness stand to testify in the third day of the trial of John R. Myers II, an Ellettsville resident accused of killing the IU student.\nOn the stand, Eric and Marilyn Behrman said they both had spoken to their daughter multiple times about riding her bicycle alone.\n"Riding was part of Jill's routine," Marilyn Behrman said. "... Generally, she rode alone to fit her schedule."\nEric and Marilyn Behrman recalled their memories of May 31, 2000, the last day they saw Jill alive.\nEric Behrman, his parents and Jill were set to have a late lunch. Jill had not arrived at the restaurant 20 minutes after the time they had decided to meet, and Eric Behrman recalled feeling "concerned and irritated." He said he thought maybe Jill had forgotten about the lunch, so he went to the Student Recreational Sports Center, where she worked, to look for her. After not finding her bike on the rack where she usually parked it, he decided to go home to look for her. Eric Behrman returned to his home to find Jill's bicycle and cycling shoes gone, and he said he just guessed Jill had forgotten about the lunch and had gone on a ride. Eric Behrman called his wife at work, and she said she had not heard from Jill, either.\nThat night the Behrmans began to get worried about Jill.\n"It was dark," Marilyn Behrman recalled. "Eric began pacing. Her bike was gone, her shoes were gone, Jill was gone. We began to think something was wrong."\nMarilyn Behrman said she had asked her daughter about a week before if she needed a light for her bike, and Jill had said no, explaining to her mother she didn't ride after dark.\n"It was very unusual for her not to come or call," Marilyn Behrman said. "I can't remember that ever happening when she lived at home. We had a sense something was wrong."\nThe Behrmans called the police and filed reports for Jill as a missing person. \nEric Behrman said he began driving all the routes Jill usually rode, driving all night to no avail. In the morning, he went to the police station, unsure of how to proceed. \nEric Behrman described his drive home from the police station as the "longest drive" of his life. \n"I had to tell our family we were on our own," he said. "I had to tell our son and everyone the search is up to us."\nThe Behrmans made fliers, called local papers and radio stations and notified friends and family of Jill's disappearance. The family offered a $25,000 reward to anyone with information about Jill, then raised it to $50,000 and eventually $100,000.\n"We searched, and we searched, and we searched," Eric Behrman said. "We spent months searching."\nIt would be almost three years before the search would turn up any information about Jill Behrman's whereabouts.\nSeveral jurors wiped away tears as Eric Behrman recalled the day in March 2003 that he and his family were notified Jill's remains had been recovered.\nEric Behrman said three investigators and a minister from the Behrmans' church met with the family at their home.\n"They said, 'This is the day we've been looking for for a long time. We found Jill,'" Eric Behrman said. \nThe prosecution introduced several pieces of evidence, including what Marilyn Behrman identified as Jill's bicycle, a Cannondale R500 bicycle in three pieces found on Maple Grove Road.