FORT WORTH — Catherine Bolton hadn't been born when her older sister, Christina Blakely, was attacked in a Wedgwood parking lot in 1984.
But from family stories through the years, she knows that her sister, then 20, was savagely beaten outside the shopping center in the 5200 block of Trial Lake Drive.
"Basically Christina played dead after her neck was broken," said Bolton, 23. "They figured the job was done, so they left."
She knows no one was ever caught.
And she knows that her sister was never the same. Blakely suffered a spinal cord injury in the attack. She was left a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair and with only limited mobility in her arms.
"Whenever she got attacked, she was in college, she was a hair model, and she had a 2-year-old son," Bolton said. "I would think anybody in that position, after having it all ripped away from you like that, would got downhill fast."
But for 25 years, Blakely persevered. Tuesday night, at age 45, the Crowley woman died at a Burleson hospice. Her death has been ruled a homicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, attributed to complications resulting from injuries sustained in the attack.
"I don’t think it’s fair that there’s somebody out there that did this to her, and they’re free and she had to be in hell for 25 years," Bolton said.
Homicide Sgt. J.D. Thornton said investigators will look into the case.
"It will be assigned to a detective to research the original circumstances and determine what viable leads there are and proceed from that point," Thornton said.
If suspects can be identified, it will be up the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to determine if murder charges are sought, he said.
Read more at Star-Telegram.com