About Me
Rachel was known to all of us for her vivacious spirit. She was always befriending new people, constantly going out of her way for others, and had such an amazing glow about her. She had a smile that could light up a room and a personality that we all envy and wish we had. Of all the things that I personally miss about Rachel is her contagious laugh and the scrunched up face she would make when she would get caught in fits of giggles. I'm sure we've all at one point heard the funny voices she was able to make since she'd had her tonsils removed. One word will always come to mind when thinking about Rachel...loving. I remember one the day of her funeral, a reporter approached me and asked me "What will you miss the most about Rachel?" I remember getting hysterical and so angry that someone would ask me to choose one thing that I would miss the most about Rachel. There was no way I could choose one thing...Rachel was so much more than "one thing." My response was "Don't ask me to choose one thing that I will miss the most. I will miss everything about Rachel... equally. I've lost apart of myself and will never get it back." I still feel that way today. She had such a love about her. I can remember watching her run outside and dance in the rain. Of course we would look at her like she was out of her mind. But she would make it look like so much fun that eventually we would have to join her. I can still hear her sister at the funeral saying that Rachel was able to live her life...then her repeating it in reassurance. That momment has stuck with me. She did live. In the short time she was here, she lived her life, most definately. Rachel was one to always go after what she wanted. Even while playing sports. She was a firecracker. So damn tiny, but fiesty!!! I know that my life has been blessed from Rachel. I am sure that everyone that got a chance to know her feels the same way. I know that she is now an angel that watches over us all every day of our lives. My heart is warmed knowing that. She will continue to smile down on us. That was Rachel's nature, to always look after her friends well beings before her own. She will forever be loved and greatly missed. RIP RachelTears for loved one, life in prison for her killer
Burkheimer's vivacious, irrepressible spirit is recalledBy JENNIFER LANGSTON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTEREVERETT -- Rachel Rose Burkheimer liked to run outside every time the sky split apart and unleashed torrential rain, her father remembered yesterday.She threw off her shoes, headed out without a coat and danced.The Marysville woman, whose former boyfriend and killer, John "Diggy" Anderson, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole, saw storms not as dark, forbidding events, but as a special gift, her father said."That was your nature, to see only the good," Bill Burkheimer said in a video played in court, saying that whenever it rains now, he thinks of her playing with God's garden hose and knows she is happy.Anderson, 22, was convicted of punching his ex-girlfriend, holding her hostage in a garage, stuffing her in a duffel bag, ordering her to lie in a freshly dug grave and shooting her. He cried throughout his sentencing yesterday.Prosecutors argued during a three-week trial that Anderson and other members of a fledgling criminal gang had paranoid fears that Burkheimer was sharing information with people who wanted to hurt or kill them.The usually stone-faced defendant, convicted of aggravated murder this week, wept openly as family members remembered the vivacious, funny and arrestingly beautiful 18-year-old who inspired intense jealousy in Anderson, witnesses testified.The man who allegedly told co-defendants he couldn't strangle Burkheimer because he used to love her could hardly form words when the judge asked what he had to say for himself."Just that may God be with her family. That's it," he said, his strangled voice breaking.Anderson, who allegedly pulled the trigger after assaulting Burkheimer, holding her hostage and ordering fellow gang members to dig a makeshift grave in the woods near Gold Bar, is the second of eight defendants to be convicted of her murder.Because of Anderson's childhood years in a state-licensed home for neglected boys that later became infamous for abuse, prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.With the recent verdict, life in prison was the only other possible sentence. Defense attorney Susan Gaer said her client would appeal his conviction next week.Five others already have pleaded guilty for their actions on Sept. 23, 2002, when a plan to kidnap and instill some forced loyalty into the Marysville girl veered out of control, according to court testimony.The trial for John A. Whitaker, the final defendant, will begin next month.Burkheimer had been adrift in the months before her death, grieving over the death of a close friend, quitting a job and dropping out of school.Although she and Anderson had ceased to be a couple long before her murder, she still hung out with him and his friends.But her pastor said yesterday that just two weeks before she was abducted, emotionally tortured and shot, she had returned to the church and was reconnecting with her faith.Denise Webber, Burkheimer's mother, confronted her daughter's killer by quoting a passage from Psalms and saying she hoped he remembered her every day for the rest of his imprisoned life."Her pain has ended, but yours has just begun. That night, under a full moon, you were really digging your own grave," she said.Bill Burkheimer said yesterday that Anderson was so shallow and emotionally stunted that he mistook fear for respect and obedience for love.He questioned whether his daughter's murderers were part of the human race."With every effort to humiliate and strip Rachel of her dignity, their own humanity sloughed off their souls like rotting meat falling from a bone," he said.He contrasted that emptiness with the thousand friends who showed up at Burkheimer's funeral and her close-knit family, which has attended every day of two lengthy trials.In a seven-minute video showing numerous pictures of the brilliant smile Burkheimer had even as a 5-year-old, he described some of his favorite memories.The Mr. Potato Head glasses she insisted on wearing every day when she was 3 years old. The funny voice she used after her tonsils were removed. The grit and courage she displayed every time she stepped on a soccer field or basketball court.Memories of her dancing in the rain, with family members watching inside and shaking their heads at her irrepressible spirit."John knew Rachel was truly loved and respected. She had the real thing," he said. "How bitter for him to have chosen only a poor facsimile of what Rachel harvested through her commitment and compassion for others."Myspace For Girls Only - MyGirlySpace.com
