NEW MILFORD, Conn. — It’s said that time heals all wounds, but 26 years after losing her sister and best friend, Jennifer Measles-Mankus said at a vigil in New Milford on Thursday night that it still hasn’t gotten any easier.
"The more time that passes the more memories you didn’t make together the more adventures you didn’t share the more things you miss out on in your adult life," Measles-Mankus said.
She was only 10 when her 13-year-old sister Maryann was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Her body was found in a lake nine months later.
The time Jennifer has spent without her sister is now twice as long as Maryann’s life.
"I just remember her being a really protective big sister and you know making mud pies with me and riding bikes and rollerblading," Measles-Mankus said. "I just remember her being there every day until she wasn’t."
Family and friends were forced to grow up without her.
"She was a light in all of our lives and when she left it definitely took a part of all of us," said Ashleigh Horton, Measles' friend.
Loved ones were also forced to remember her as forever 13.
Watch a 2002 interview with Maryann's mother.
"She loved doing hair and makeup and she loved to sing and we would talk about different 90s music artists like Janet Jackson. We loved Janet Jackson and TLC," Horton said.
On the anniversary of the day Maryann was last seen, loved ones found comfort in sharing some of those memories.
"I miss her really beautiful voice and her laugh that was absolutely infectious and semi-ridiculous," Measles-Mankus said.
Seven of the eight people convicted for Maryann’s death are still behind bars. However, the fight for justice is one that’s ongoing.
"It’s not something that ended when Maryann was found it’s something that’s dragged on through all of our lives because we’ve had to go through hearings for her justice," Horton said.
Killed by a group of people much older than her in their late teens and early twenties that she knew, her family hopes others can learn from the tragedy.
"From Maryann’s loss I want people to understand you have to do whatever it is to protect your children from older groups of people at all costs," Measles-Mankus said.
This sentiment is so that no parent is left with the questions her mom still has, decades later.
"I love her and I miss her and I think about her every day. And what would she look like? How would she sound? What would her kids look like?" said her mother Cindi Measles. "Thirteen years wasn’t long enough. Not nearly long enough."
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at mmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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