"Mourning Mommy"

The haunting call from a young teenager nearly 16 years ago would be one of several I would receive during my career from children whose mothers were murdered at the hands of their father.

Some kids have called to ask does the pain every stop while others just want to learn the truth behind the women who gave them life. Someplace in the conversation would always be the question, Why? How could this have happened? "My mom was such a good person and she didn't deserve to be murdered.

During this particular call the young man was angry that his father did not go to jail for killing his mother. "How did my father walk from a slam dunk case" Edward asked. I comforted him as best I could trying in someway to relieve his pain with similar unanswered questions, I too, had when my own father murdered my mother. Before I ended the call I said" you and I in a private club, whose membership is growing."

Who would ever believe, years later in another state as I was ending a conversation with a women whose father had also killed her mother, Edward now a man in his early thirties with a family of his own would hear me repeat those very words as he stood before me. "Your name, what's your name" Edward demanded to know. I responded with another name that I use for safety reasons. "No, no! That is not your name. Your that women I spoke with", as he explained

his own private hell to me. "There is only one person I ever heard say what you just told that called and she helped me figure out things after I learned my father killed my mom."

The next day Edward came to me with documents from 1974, the year his mother Judy Topp was murdered. Edward had already gone through old case files, talking with officers who were listed on police reports and court files. Nothing made sense.

"I kept having these terrible nightmares-I was walking through an apartment building with so many doors-I walked through the last door until I came across my father sitting up in bed without his shirt, next to a woman with half her head blown off. It was mother he killed, my dream was real." After further investigation we learned Edwards father had hired a lawyer for $10,000 and got him acquitted during a bench trial.

Recently, we spoke. "Somedays I want justice, and other days I just want to die. I can never be close to people again. I don't feel whole-like I am incomplete somehow. No one see's the real me. I feel like I am living a lie.

I want to honor my mother, but that is not really possible. Maybe somehow from heaven the words from my heart can reach her now. Edward's mother would be proud of how her son out in the world . And yes, as long as she lives in his heart, the angels will always carry the message of his love and honor for a woman who died without justice being served. Judith Top was born on January 28, 1953 and died on November 23, 1974.

This is a topic untouched. Fathers murdering women and leaving their children behind with unanswered questions. On June 10, 2009 at 3:00PM Central time, on The Susan Murphy Milano show, we will discuss the topic of children whose fathers have killed their mothers. It is an important subject. As the lives of the children who witness violence and terror in their homes if they survive, live the remainder of their days on earth often in darkness and without hope.

Please join me for this very special hour.