#tdor

Precious Arzuaga is expected to be sentenced Sept. 4 to life in prison without parole after admitting to charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse, concealment of a human corpse, conspiracy, coercion and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the death of Nordquist, a 24-year-old from Oakdale, Minnesota. [...] Arzuaga is one of seven people charged in the case. She admitted to being the one to conceal Nordquist's body after his killing, prosecutors said. [...] Kayla [Sam's sister] said she does not believe all the details of Sam’s abuse were revealed in court. "I feel like I was slapped in the face because I deserve the truth, my mom deserves the truth, the community deserves the truth, and I don't feel like we got all of what happened to Sam today," she said.

The hardest part of it for me is the candles. As is tradition, we light a candle for each of the names as they're read out. The lighting of the candles is very emotional, and it shakes a lot of people to their core, but it isn't the hard part. The hard part is after everyone leaves. The hard part is that those candle flames must be snuffed out once more to be cleaned up and put away. That is the hardest part for me.

I'd met one of the people whom we light a candle for. It was brief and in passing at a Pride event. I probably wouldn't have remembered if it weren't for the vigil with her photo just weeks later.

it arrived almost in time for TDOR