thedrifter
03-23-08, 05:34 PM
Siblings fight for country following their mother's tragic death
By Richard Wilson
Staff Writer
Sunday, March 23, 2008
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fifth and final installment of a series reflecting on the Iraq War's impact upon Butler County.
After enduring their mother's tragic and highly publicized murder, two Hamilton native siblings have served multiple tours in the Iraq War.
As U.S. Marines, siblings Justin Weber and Shannon Evans have lived through extraordinary times. From 2003 to 2006, 28-year-old Weber volunteered for two of three tours in the Iraq War, where he searched for bombs and processed the bodies of U.S. soldiers who were killed in action. In 2006, Evans, 27, received a Purple Heart after surviving a roadside bomb that blew up the vehicle that she was riding in.
Their years of military service have changed them, but perhaps not as dramatically as the events that unfolded on June 9, 1998 — the day Franklin Saunders shot and killed their mother, 38-year-old Lisa Weber, in a wooded area in West Chester Twp.
Weber, then 19, was preparing for boot camp. He would become a mortuary affairs specialist for the military police and is now an investigator for the Butler County Coroner's Office, the same agency that investigated his mother's death.
"I've probably seen more death in the past 10 years than most people see in two or three lifetimes," Weber said.
Evans struggled to graduate on time at Hamilton High School in 1999, the year Saunders pleaded guilty to killing her mother. He's serving a life sentence at the Ross Correctional Institution without the possibility of parole, according to court records.
Evans, who's now married to a fellow MP and recently gave birth to a boy, Cayden, said what happened to her mom has helped her become the person she is today.
"She would be proud of what I've done, and what my brother has done," Evans said.
Ellie
By Richard Wilson
Staff Writer
Sunday, March 23, 2008
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fifth and final installment of a series reflecting on the Iraq War's impact upon Butler County.
After enduring their mother's tragic and highly publicized murder, two Hamilton native siblings have served multiple tours in the Iraq War.
As U.S. Marines, siblings Justin Weber and Shannon Evans have lived through extraordinary times. From 2003 to 2006, 28-year-old Weber volunteered for two of three tours in the Iraq War, where he searched for bombs and processed the bodies of U.S. soldiers who were killed in action. In 2006, Evans, 27, received a Purple Heart after surviving a roadside bomb that blew up the vehicle that she was riding in.
Their years of military service have changed them, but perhaps not as dramatically as the events that unfolded on June 9, 1998 — the day Franklin Saunders shot and killed their mother, 38-year-old Lisa Weber, in a wooded area in West Chester Twp.
Weber, then 19, was preparing for boot camp. He would become a mortuary affairs specialist for the military police and is now an investigator for the Butler County Coroner's Office, the same agency that investigated his mother's death.
"I've probably seen more death in the past 10 years than most people see in two or three lifetimes," Weber said.
Evans struggled to graduate on time at Hamilton High School in 1999, the year Saunders pleaded guilty to killing her mother. He's serving a life sentence at the Ross Correctional Institution without the possibility of parole, according to court records.
Evans, who's now married to a fellow MP and recently gave birth to a boy, Cayden, said what happened to her mom has helped her become the person she is today.
"She would be proud of what I've done, and what my brother has done," Evans said.
Ellie