Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403130093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Charles and Nhan L. Beecher hope they can spare others the loss they endured when a man free on bond after being charged with raping a 14-year-old killed their daughter, Judy Greer.
A federal jury last week convicted Mark C. Poe, a neighbor of Judy Greer, in the April slaying. He likely will spend the rest of his life in prison.
"Many times I want to kill myself. But I told myself I have to fight to save other people's lives," Nhan Beecher said. "I don't want you to go through what I have to."
The petition also supports the death penalty for people who commit gruesome murders. Greer's head and arms were found in Virginia Beach, and her torso was discovered in a Suffolk lake.
The Beechers hope to hand-deliver the petition to Gov. George Allen. Beecher wrote to the governor two weeks ago but hasn't heard back. If they can't get an appointment with the governor, they will present the petition to state legislators during Victims' Rights Week in April.
As much as anything else, the petition is a collective expression of outrage against crime and a community's expression of compassion for crime victims. The box that holds the petition also holds a stack of letters of support from friends, neighbors and strangers.
Nhan Beecher collected the first 800 signatures on her own. "I go door to door. I do it all by myself," she said. "I walk in the snow. I walk in the rain. I never think I had to go out and do something like this."
The Beechers met in Vietnam, where Navy storekeeper Charles Beecher, 52, spent 6 1/2 years during the war. He remembers being the best-dressed man in camp because Nhan Beecher would walk 12 miles round trip to bring him clean clothes.
As a mother, Nhan Beecher showed the same selflessness toward Judy and her two brothers. But now everything has changed.
The Beechers ruefully wonder why they survived in war-torn Saigon only to have their daughter slaughtered at a Navy housing complex.
"Why I live in a war and I don't die, but my daughter lives on a base where it's safe?" Nhan Beecher wondered aloud.
by CNB