Ronald Burke didn't break into Bernard Dunstan III's home. But the two-bit burglar ended up taking everything Dunstan had.

A beautiful, loving wife. And their unborn son.

For that - and for having a mug shot that ought to be in the dictionary under "vile" - the 26-year-old Burke will live a cold-blooded murderer's life behind bars.

However long this loathsome creature walks the narrow prison halls, it will be but an earthly prelude to an even more fitting judgment.

We are, after all, hard-pressed to conjure a more wretched act in these parts in some time.

As a pediatric oncology nurse and 29-year-old pregnant wife, Tamara Dunstan happily spent her days and nights in constant caring for others. As befits such an angel, it was as she was leaving a birthday present in her mother's Augusta house on April 15, 2004, that she was snatched and taken from this world.

To Burke's dubious rsum, which includes "burglar" and "murderer," add "coward." He let Dunstan's family, and seemingly the whole of Augusta, search for Tamara for three days before admitting his crime and leading authorities to a shallow Edgefield County, S.C., grave.

Now, in an effort to spare his own miserable life, Burke has pleaded guilty and accepted three life sentences and more, with no possibility of parole.

Though he slipped through death's fingers for now, his reptilian acceptance of life in prison spares Tamara's survivors not only a painful trial but an almost-assured decade or more of appeals.

It is a mixed blessing that we hope will comfort the families involved to whatever extent possible. It must be said that, from beginning to end, Tamara's extended families have been the epitome of grace under the utmost pressure. Indeed, upon the occasion of Monday's plea, the families released a statement thanking authorities and the media.

It is we who should thank them - for being the personification of civility and dignity under the most undignified of circumstances.

No one would ever want to endure what the Dunstans and Cundleys have, and no one should ever have to.

But may we learn from their stature and strength nonetheless.

There are, as it turns out, things that no one can take from you.