Charlie and Judy Carpenter talk about the death of their daughter, Jessica, who was killed at their Crosland Park home three weeks ago. They said living in the home is now impossible. MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF

Parents take pride in teen's legacy

Web posted August 27, 2000

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - It's difficult for Judy Carpenter to look at people the same way now.

Her 17-year-old daughter, Jessica, was viciously slain in her own home, and the killer remains free.

``Your mind tends to wander and think, `Who did this?'ƒ'' Mrs. Carpenter said. ``Every time you look at somebody - `They did it.' That's how we perceive it. We see somebody - `You did it!'

``Everyone's a suspect right now. That's why I want it solved so we can clear our heads of any bad thoughts.''

Living at home in the 100 block of Brentwood Place is impossible. She has another daughter who has shared her home to her parents.

``We're trying to deal with the idea of, `Can we go back into this home? And that's the thing we have to decide,'ƒ'' said Charlie Carpenter, Jessica's father. ``But right now, until somebody's caught - and maybe we have some understanding - we have difficulty going home.''

On Saturday, the Carpenters returned to their home in Crosland Park subdivision and sat on the deck for a 90-minute interview in which they talked about Jessica's life and death, their suspicions, the lack of an arrest and how they are coping with the pain of losing their youngest daughter.

It was Aug. 4 when Mrs. Carpenter returned home from work and found her daughter dead. Police continue to seek a motive and a suspect.

Coping hasn't been easy. The family has handled it through counseling, faith and community support.

``We cope by believing that justice will be done, that whoever did this will be caught,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

Jessica Carpenter's family said the teen enjoyed making people happy and dreamed of opening a restaurant in New York. SPECIAL

The outpouring of community support has been tremendous.

``We've gotten tons of cards and letters from people who have had similar circumstances as far as the death of a child, which has helped us tremendously,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

The family has undergone private counseling as well to help realize they aren't ``nuts,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

``You're thinking, `Am I crazy? Why am I like this?' It's something that rattles your world,'' he said.

Jessica's spirit

They cope by knowing Jessica touched many lives .

That was clear the day of her funeral. A young girl walked up to Mr. Carpenter as he stood near the casket at Sunset Memory Gardens. He didn't recognize her.

``She had all these tears running down her face,'' he said. ``She said, `I shared geometry class with Jessica, and Jessica would be the only one who would talk to me to make sure my day was going good and ask me how things were going in my life.'ƒ''

Jessica's mother said her daughter left a good legacy.

``I feel like she was an angel among us on Earth, and she was put here to do a job and taken home,'' she said.

Jessica was friendly with everyone, her mother said. She welcomed neighbors to the community. Her personality made her a great hostess at Red Lobster restaurant.

In ninth grade, she nominated her science teacher for the Golden Apple award, and the teacher won. Her parents attended a ceremony at which the teacher personally thanked Jessica. It made her parents proud.

``She enjoyed making everybody else happy,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

``She had that kind of heart,'' his wife added.

Jessica talked about becoming a pediatrician because she loved children. But in recent months, she had talked more about cooking. She loved to cook and dreamed of moving to the big city and opening a restaurant. Her grandmother had promised to teach her how to make chicken and dumplings.

But a killer silenced her laughter and her ambitions.

``That's why sometimes it's so hard for us to understand this, how it could have happened,'' Mr. Carpenter said. ``If they knew her, they just couldn't have done this.''

Memorial scholarship A scholarship fund has been created in Jessica Carpenter's memory. Anyone wishing to make contributions to the Jessica Lynne Carpenter Memorial Scholarship Fund should make a check payable to ``Aiken Partnership'' and send it to: USC Aiken Partnership c/o USC Aiken 471 University Parkway Aiken, SC 29801 For more information, call Daniel Fishburne at (803) 642-6926.

The Carpenters said they feel her spirit around them daily.

``That's how I am dealing with it. She is here, I just don't see her,'' Mrs. Carpenter said.

``I can feel her around me,'' Mr. Carpenter said. ``I know that is God also making me feel that way. It gives me comfort.''

The last day

Jessica spent Aug. 4 at home, doing chores and running errands.

She liked helping her neighbors. She frequently drove an elderly couple to the store or to church, returning to pick them up afterward. She baby-sat three young boys down the block.

On the Friday of her death, she picked up one of the boys from basketball camp and dropped him off at home. She cooked a box of macaroni and cheese for her and her mother to share for lunch. Later, she washed a load of clothes and hung them up in her bathroom.

At 4:30 p.m., Mr. Carpenter called his wife at work to say he was heading home from his job in Wilmington, N.C., where he works as an operations manager during the week. He said he would be home at about 8 p.m.

In Aiken, Mrs. Carpenter returned home just before 6 p.m. and found the body. Jessica's dresses were still hanging in her bathroom. An autopsy showed she died of internal bleeding and a lack of oxygen, perhaps from someone choking her.

Mr. Carpenter had just reached Interstate 95 when his cellular phone rang. It was his wife.

``She was gasping for breath, and I'm wondering, `What's wrong? What's wrong?' And I thought the world had come to an end,'' he said.

``It's Jessica,'' Mrs. Carpenter said between breaths.

George Meyers, a neighbor and family friend, took the telephone and explained Jessica had been killed.

Mr. Carpenter asked how, but Mr. Meyers didn't want to tell him over the telephone. Finally, he asked Mr. Carpenter to pull off the road and told him.

The investigation

Since the killing, investigators with the Aiken Department of Public Safety have dedicated themselves to finding the killer, interviewing more than 200 people and processing more than 115 leads. Investigators continually update the Carpenters, calling them a day before they release information to the public.

``We feel it will be solved - maybe not as quickly as we would like, but they know what they are doing,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

If she could talk to the killer, Mrs. Carpenter would ask a simple question: Why?

Mr. Carpenter would say something different.

``Do the right thing and turn yourself in because God knows you did it,'' Mr. Carpenter said. ``And we know that you're eventually going to get caught. If you're not caught here on Earth, you're going to be caught on the day that you die. So do the right thing and save us all some grief.''

Until the homicide is solved, the Carpenters are working on carrying on their daughter's legacy with a memorial scholarship fund at the University of South Carolina Aiken, one of many schools Jessica considered attending.

``We're trying to pick up her torch and carry it on, and that's what she would want us to do,'' Mr. Carpenter said.

At the funeral for Jessica, music from one of her favorite movies played as the casket was taken out of the church - Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On from the film Titanic.

``And that comforted us,'' he said, ``because her heart will go on. It's going to go on in all of us.''

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895 or scbureau@augustachronicle.com.