They sat side by side in the courtroom Tuesday for their ninth grim reunion.
Donna Witmer, mother of Stephanie Collins.
Natalie Holley, mother of Natalie Blanche Holley.
Kathleen Reeves, mother of Teri Lynn Matthews.
The daughters have been gone since 1986. Twenty years later, their mothers are sad, tired, sarcastic, hopeful, resolute. And united, always united, against one man: Oscar Ray Bolin.
He sat in the front of the courtroom, on trial for the ninth time for first-degree murder. Three times each for Holley and Matthews, now a third for Collins.
Ninety-six jurors have found Bolin guilty eight times; six of the convictions and death sentences were vacated on appeal. Two years ago, the Florida Supreme Court upheld Bolin's death sentence for murdering Matthews in Pasco County. Last year, a judge sentenced him to life in prison after his second-degree murder conviction in Holley's case.
Witmer is counting on the latest 12 jurors and prosecutor Mike Halkitis for finality in her daughter's case.
"We hope it's the last one," said Witmer, 57. "That's what we keep telling ourselves."
A judge, a defense attorney, a medical examiner and a key witness all have died since Bolin's 1990 arrest for the murders. Witnesses have moved across the country, scattering to North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. Bolin's hair has gone from brown to gray. Holley, 81, walks with a cane.
The women don't chat much between trials. But successful appeals have brought plenty of chances to catch up, with trials and retrials in 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2005. They attend every one.
"They're my rock," Witmer said. "We're unfortunate that we're together, but we're fortunate to have each other."
Witmer testified Tuesday of seeing her 17-year-old daughter get ready for school the morning of Nov. 5, 1986. When the mother returned home that evening, Collins' schoolbooks were there but she was not.
Authorities found the Chamberlain High School senior's empty car at a shopping center parking lot in Carrollwood.
A county worker found Collins' decomposed body in a ditch a month later, her feet clad in white sneakers, her torso wrapped in sheets and a towel.
A hair on the towel matched Bolin's DNA, experts testified.
Jurors watched videotaped testimony from Bolin's deceased ex- wife, Cheryl Jo Coby. Her account has served as the linchpin of his appeals, with higher courts ruling that it violated Bolin's right not to have his spouse testify against him. An edited version shown Tuesday included what Coby witnessed but not what Bolin told her.
Witmer, Reeves and Holley listened stoically throughout the day. Witmer left once in tears when the prosecutor showed jurors a large picture of her daughter's body amid the roadside weeds.
"I don't want to deal with it anymore," she said later. "I just don't want to deal with his existence."
Her sisters in sorrow share her frustration. They will return to the courtroom as testimony continues today, but they will wish for a different reunion in the near future.
"I hope," Reeves said, "our next trip is to Starke."
