Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Becky was special....the thing I remember most was her laughter. She was always laughing!
Becky was 9 months pregnant when she was killed. When a cousin who worked at the hospital called my aunt (her mother) to come as soon as possible, she was sure that Becky had gone into labor (even though the call came from the hospital in our hometown - not Becky's community hospital.)
I was only 11, but I still remember so many details of that tragic time. That Monday morning, an off duty ambulance driver spotted her car off a rural road in the Pine Mountain community (where my family is originally from). He actually saw the car twice - once on his way somewhere, and again when he returned. The car was down a slight embankment, and he initially thought that some kids had pulled off the road to "park". When he returned, and noticed a knee in the rear window in the exact same position, he knew he had to investigate.
To make a long story short, Becky had been shot in the eye. They were not sure how long she had been dead, and doctors tried to save her sweet baby....but it was too late. They even cut his little cheek trying to get to him in time. He was buried in her arms.
Her husband, Larry Gene Heath, hired 2 hit men to kill her. They kidnapped her from her home that morning, and drover her to the remote location. Later, through testimony, we found out how defiant she was with the perps, and how much she tried to fight them. When the trigger man shot the gun initially - it misfired. She told him, "Don't you DARE shoot me! Think of my baby!" Unfortunately, the promise of the money to complete the job was too much of an incentive. The second shot hit its mark. The men placed a brick on the accelerator of her car and planned to make the incident look like an accident with the car driving off an embankment. The brick slipped off, leaving the vehicle where the ambulance driver later spotted it.
My ex-cousin-in-law received the death penalty. Just a note - because of Roe vs. Wade, and the precedent set by declaring a fetus not a life until birth - Heath and his accomplices were only allowed ONE murder charge - even though the baby should have lived. He was full-term.
Larry Gene Heath was executed on March 20, 1992.
