Felicia Krecij often feels there is no point in living, now that her beloved sister, Kira Steger, is gone. Following Kira’s disappearance in Saint Paul, Minnesota, last February, suspicion swirled around Kira’s husband, Jeffrey Trevino. But he remained silent about what had happened to his wife.

A barge worker discovered Kira’s body in the Mississippi River in May, following months of searches organized by the family and others.

In October, a jury found Trevino guilty of her murder; this week the judge handed down a sentence of 27 1/2 years in prison.

In court statements made at Trevino’s sentencing, Kira’s family told of spending the past nine months “racked by depression, fear and anxiety,” reports today’s Pioneer Press. “Months of sleepless nights wondering what had happened to Steger. Eleven weeks of searching and wondering. Seventy-seven days; 38 organized searches.”

Kira’s family’s anguish and despair is palpable, and reverberates with other others who have lost loved ones because of this kind of violence. The picture Kira’s family paints is one that should propel each of us to take action. Read the full article in the Pioneer Press.

By: Susan Banovetz, director of communication, The Advocates for Human Rights