FORT WORTH, Texas -- More than nine years ago, on Valentine's Day, construction workers found the naked body of Nyanuer "Mary" Pal in a creek bed near Lake Worth.
She had been raped and shot in the head.
Two months earlier, almost to the day, Rachel Urnosky, 22, was found dead in her southwest Fort Worth apartment. She had also been shot in the head.
The two women didn't know each other and had little in common -- except that they had crossed paths with Cleve Foster and Sheldon Ward, both of whom ended up on Death Row for collaborating on the murders.
The road to justice has been long and unpredictable for Pal's and Urnosky's loved ones, who have repeatedly been blindsided by developments that have delayed or thwarted the execution of the two men.
In 2010, Ward died in prison from a brain tumor before he could be executed.
And this year, just before the families were about to witness Foster's execution, he received a last-minute reprieve.
Now, Texas has run out of one of the three drugs used in lethal injections and has replaced it with a different drug -- drawing new challenges from Foster and his attorneys, who are trying to stop his execution, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday in Huntsville.
"I just want it to be over," said Urnosky's mother, Pam.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/04/02/2970197/execution-of-womans-killer-still.html#ixzz1IU3LhwX4