Family still copes with '72 slayings

CONCEPTION, Mo. -- Thirty years after a 15-year-old boy killed her parents and two siblings in their Conception home, Sue Dorrel says she is on a "journey toward forgiveness."

"It's time to move on," said Dorrel, of Maryville, Mo. "It's time to let go. It's time to heal, and it's time to forgive. It's been 30 years, and it's time."

On Oct. 10, 1972, Benedict Kemper waited for his neighbors to go to sleep, then shot them one by one. Kemper first shot Marion Merrigan, the 45-year-old man who'd taken him to ballgames, as he slept in the Conception farmhouse. Next, he killed Merrigan's wife, Kathleen, 41. Kemper then went upstairs and shot his classmate, William, three times before pointing the rifle at Helen Ann, 16.

Sue's life was spared because she was attending college 18 miles away.

While Dorrel said she often thinks of her sister as a teacher and imagines her brother carrying on the farming tradition, she has learned to be "happy with where they are now."

Her aunt, Marge Wolfer, however, insists she will never let go. Last month, she led a crusade to ensure her sister's murderer stays behind bars.

"We're talking about human lives here," the Kansas City woman said. "Forgiveness is not the issue. Justice is."

Kemper was ordered to serve four consecutive 45-year sentences for the killings and another six years for an attempted escape in 1973. His most recent request for parole was denied. His next parole hearing will be in 2005.