Sawyer’s grandfather shares painful story
Despite seeing Edwin Lara, the former Central Oregon Community College campus safety officer who murdered their granddaughter, receive a lifetime prison sentence, the grandparents of Kaylee Sawyer will continue to live with the pain of Kaylee’s death every day.
Jim Walden, Kaylee’s maternal grandfather told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday he will forever relive the moments leading up to when he found out his granddaughter had been murdered.
“That night, when we sat in my daughter’s front room and we heard their changing it from a missing persons to a homicide investigation, it was like someone slammed a big hammer to my chest,” Walden said.
“The last time I saw my baby girl, I got to kiss her on a the forehead in a body bag. I couldn’t even see her. I just kissed a body bag,” he said.
For Walden, that quick goodbye was just the start of hundreds of painful moments that will never go away.
“I had to ask, ‘Where’s her feet? Where’s her head?’ Those kind of memories never go away, you never get over them. You just have to learn to deal with it, but every day it’s another round,” Walden said.
Kaylee Sawyer was killed in parking lot B12 on the COCC campus. Her family placed a memorial, including a wreath, a photo and an angel, in that location, to honor her memory and protect the space.
“A while back, there was a lot of hoopla about an eclipse coming up, and there were thousands of people coming into Central Oregon to view an eclipse. Mine happened on July 24, 2016. My sunshine went away,” Walden said.
Darkness fell on the family as it watched the investigation into the violent murder of their loved one unfold.
“He abducted Kaylee, put her in the back of his patrol car. He assaulted her. He strangled her. He choked her out and, while she was unconscious and in the process of dying, he raped and sodomized her and then he caved her head in with a boulder — not just a rock, a boulder,” Walden said.
Edwin Lara pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated murder and robbery.
“Robbery kind of fits, because he robbed Kaylee of so much — her life, her future,” Walden said.
And because of that stolen life, Jim Walden will not answer Edwin Lara’s courtroom plea to be heard.
“Forgiveness is God’s job, or the devil’s job. I would just like to arrange the meeting. That’s not going to happen. Forgiveness is not in my heart for him — not even a word in my vocabulary for him,” Walden said
After Sawyer’s death, her family started KK’s Reader, a foundation to donate books to the Head Start program. She also has a scholarship in her name through Aubrey Dental where she worked.
There is also a civil lawsuit pending by Sawyer’s parents, against COCC.
You can see Walden read a statement from Kaylee Sawyer’s mother, Juli Walden VanCleave, by clicking on the related video beside this story.
