In an e-mail to The Evening Sun this morning, Shyanne Somers’ mother, Kathy, offered the following

Through the last 19 months, we have all lived our lives in limbo, waiting for the trial, waiting for the truth, wanting to make sure that justice for Shyanne was found finally.

I thought that I knew everything that happened on that hill that night, but hearing all of the evidence puts it in a new perspective. It’s one thing to “know” what happened, it’s another to have that evidence in your face in pictures. To hear the extent of her injuries breaks my heart in ways I didn’t know it could still be broken.

Shyanne was such a wonderful little girl. She was indeed everything that a mother could hope or wish for. She was my life and my heart, my best friend. Shyanne was the glue that held our family together; each one of us in our own way would always think of how our choices would affect Shyanne. Because we loved her so much, not one of us wanted to ever do anything that would hurt her. She was our light and our compass, and she didn’t even realize it. Maybe it wasn’t until she was taken from us that we realized how much she truly held us all together.