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 Mike and Rachael, parents of 15-year-old Laura Szendrei who was murdered in A Delta Park in September 2010, mourn their loss during a press conference in North Delta Police Detachment in the Metro Vancouver area, Feb 21, 2011. (CARMINE MARINELLI/QMI AGENCY) |
VANCOUVER - Family and friends of Laura Szendrei, the Delta, B.C., teen found fatally beaten at a park two years ago, broke into tears Monday during the opening of a first-degree murder trial.
The accused is a 19-year-old North Delta man who cannot be named because he was a minor at the time of Szendrei’s death. He was arrested in February 2011.
The slain girl’s mother hopes whoever is found responsible receives a life sentence.
“That’s my outcome wish at the end of the rainbow,” Rachael Szendrei told QMI Agency outside court.
The 15-year-old’s badly beaten body was found by police in Mackie Park on Sept. 25, 2010.
Szendrei was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries but later died. She had been on her way to meet friends that afternoon.
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“I wouldn’t want to wish (this) upon anyone,” her mother said.
Evidence presented at Monday’s hearing is under a publication ban, but many in the crowded public gallery shed tears as the proceedings began.
At one point a court sheriff passed around a box of tissues for the emotional audience.
“You see her parents, they’re just crying,’’ said Dayna Furst, whose niece was a close friend of Szendrei and played soccer with her on the SurDel Jaguars team.
“Her mom was bent over … it’s just devastating. This is their daughter they’re talking about. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. Everybody hoped that night that she would recover. Everybody loved her. She was a really sweet, kind girl, that’s why everybody didn’t understand. Why Laura? She was such an angel.”
The hearing is expected to resume Tuesday at Surrey, B.C., provincial court. Trial is scheduled until Oct. 4.
A memorial garden for Szendrei was opened in May during the Annual Laura Szendrei Walk, Run and Roll, at Burnsview Secondary School in Delta.
Funds from the event go to sport scholarships at Delta high schools.