Nathan
was spending the night at his best friends house whose name was Irish and
they decided to sneak out of the house that night to go visit Irish's
girlfriend. There was another boy with them and they were all three
picked up by two people about midnight the oldest person was Robert Kay
who was in his early 20's and the younger boy with him was Ashley Usher
who was 15 at the time. All three boys were taken to a remote area about
15 miles from where we lived and tied to trees and kept there all
night. As the night went on Irish was molested and sexually abused by one
of the men. ( The other kidnapper went home early) As far as we know
Nathan was not molested. They were kept tied up all night and a tarp
was thrown over them at several points when planes flew over head. The
next morning they were all taken to another area of town and made to beg
for their lives and taped recorded. Irish was shot first at point blank
in the head and Nathan ran. He was chased for six blocks and shot three
times, one bullet entered the back and went through his kidney, the
second entered his back and went through his lung and when he fell to
the ground he was shot the third time in the head. Nathan died laying in
the middle of a street and was left there by the kidnapper. The third boy
ran and managed to get free. He ran to a house that was 2 miles away and
called the police. Robert Kay was arrested the same day because he came
back to the site to bury the bodies of Irish and Nathan but was spotted
by the police and questioned and later fled the scene and was arrested
at his home. He is now serving a life sentence in a Florida prison. The
other kidnapper served three years and was released and deported back
to Canada. He was not a US citizen.
Losing Nathan has changed our lives so much. Not a day goes by we do not
mention his name. It has been very difficult on all of us. When a parent
losses a child they also lose a part of themselves. A part of all of us
died with Nathan that day. I lost a lot of friends after Nathan's
death. They are afraid and do not know what to say. One of the worst things they could do to you is avoid you.
I was very lucky to have one wonderful friend who stayed beside me and my family thoughtout the whole thing Sharon has been my guardian angel and without her I
don't know if I would have made it some days. She was there when the news
broke out on TV and the press would not leave my family alone, she was
there the days, weeks and months after Nathan's death. And she attended
every court room appearance we attended and she is still only a phone
call away for me to this day.
