Family members finally get some answers after long, painful wait
By ERIN SCHATTAUER

Photo by Jerry Sowden - Shauna's mother, Lucy Brown, testified at Tuesday's hearing. She is pictured here with her husband, Jon.

Twelve years is a long time to wait.

A long time to turn over in one's mind what really happened the night of Oct. 27, 1992.

The night taught parents in a complacent small town to scuttle their little ones inside, feverishly, before the sun went down.

It taught children to glance back over their shoulders while walking down the street because now a face and name could be tied to the word "kidnapping." And no one knew if there would be more victims.

But Shauna Howe, not yet 12 years old, had no idea what was about to happen that night as she trekked home from a Halloween party. She would never walk through the door of her family's home that night, or ever again. She would never go to another Halloween party. And she would never blow the candles out on another birthday cake.

There were many more questions than answers.

For nearly 12 years, Shauna's relatives and the community that rallied around the memory of the little girl and her grieving family waited for the answers, for someone to be held accountable.

Tuesday, in a tiny but well-guarded courtroom tucked on the third floor of the Venango County Courthouse, some of those answers came.

A handful of witnesses testified during the preliminary hearing for James E. O'Brien, 32, his brother, Timothy O'Brien, 37, and Eldred "Ted" Walker, 45, who confessed to police that he abducted Shauna.

Shauna's family showed little emotion, listening to the sometimes-graphic testimony of police officers, the man who says he saw Shauna snatched from the corner and other key people. They sat mere paces away from the three men in prison orange and shackles.

Shauna's mother, Lucy Brown and her husband, Jon, as well as uncles and other relatives, traveled through the courthouse in a tight, huddled pack, keeping mostly to themselves.

Even when she took the stand, Lucy Brown, dressed in black, remained poised and unemotional. As did Shauna's uncle, Keith Sibble, who rehashed details of the October day in 1992 when he leaned over the side of a Rockland Township bridge and saw his niece's body lying beneath a railroad trestle.

"For some reason, I'm thinking one of her shoes was off," he calmly told the court.

He was also the one who made the call to Lucy that Shauna's clothes had been found.

Brown and Sibble, along with the other witnesses, delivered their statements to a room filled mostly with family members, media and sheriff's deputies who were scattered generously throughout the courtroom and the rest of the courthouse.

Little emotion was visible for the most part, but there were moments during the daylong preliminary hearing when it seemed reliving the details of the gruesome abduction and murder became too much to bear.

Some of Shauna's family members encircled each other with protective arms.

One woman sat placidly in the corner of the courtroom, taking notes in a small notebook and occasionally dabbing her eyes.

In the building's back stairwell, one of Shauna's family members hid her face in the red hooded sweatshirt she wore and sobbed.

What those 12 years have seemingly done is teach Shauna's family about finding peace and moving on.

Late in the day, in the glow of the afternoon sun, Sibble emerged from the courthouse's back door to deliver a prepared statement on behalf of the family.

Clutching a white sheet of paper and accompanied by another of Shauna's uncles, Clair Sibble, Keith Sibble gently told reporters that family members were happy with Tuesday's ruling and relayed their confidence in the judicial system.

He thanked everyone who helped get the case where it is today, and requested that no one contact the family.

"We just hope Shauna rests in peace, and we'll try to go on with our lives."

When asked if he thought the men responsible should receive the death penalty, he paused for a moment.

"We'll let that be decided by the judicial system," he simply and softly replied.

Dealing with the truth about what happened to Shauna is no easier now for the family than it was 12 years ago, Sibble indicated.

"No matter how long it's been, 12 years, it felt like yesterday," he said.

Now the wait is finally over, and as the process moves forward more and more answers will be uncovered for Shauna's family members and the community that grieved with them.