On this July 4, 2013, as we collectively celebrate the blessings of liberty and safety from tyranny, Stephanie Rene Schmidt of Leawood, Kansas, should have been celebrating her 40th birthday, surrounded by her adoring family.
“For the first three or four years of Stephanie’s life, I let her believe all the fireworks were for her,” her father Gene recalled.
I say, “should have been celebrating” because 20 years and two days ago, on July 2, 1993, the beautiful blonde student at Pittsburg (that’s right, no “h” at the end) State University was assaulted and murdered by a man named Donald Ray Gideon, a co-worker at the restaurant where Stephanie was earning her way through college.
The story of Stephanie’s death and her parents’ and sister’s struggle to make something meaningful come out of it is a saga of almost unbelievable suffering, dedication and heroism.