TRAVERSE CITY -- Chanda Allen is forced to have a difficult conversation with her son every now and then.
The toddler, Scout, asks about his great aunt Gladys, who cared for him and showered him with gifts. Allen tells him Aunt Gladys is "up in heaven" and won't be returning. Sometimes, Scout asks why.
"I've told him because a bad man did a bad thing to your aunt," Allen said.
Police found Gladys Jean Anderson, 67, stabbed to death in her rural Kingsley home in March. Investigators believe she'd been dead several weeks.
Her ex-husband, Jerry Jay Anderson, eventually was charged in the death. He was sentenced to 50-75 years in prison in July after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The slaying required Allen and her family to lean heavily on their faith. It's hard to avoid moments of anger and frustration, Allen said, but she tries to put those emotions aside.
"I don't want it to consume my life," she said. "I'm going to go on and be happy, and he's going to sit."
Allen is upset Anderson wasn't given a life sentence. She also struggles with his savage actions; Anderson revealed in court he killed Gladys during a "heated argument."
"I just don't understand how a human being can be capable of doing something so cruel," Allen said.
Gladys Anderson's sister, Virginia Seyler, is still deeply troubled by the murder. But she's leaned on family to make it through, particularly her husband, Tom Seyler.
"We've been together 48 and a half years, and he's gotten me through an awful lot," she said. "This was one of the toughest times of my life."
Jerry Anderson spent 25 years in prison for second-degree murder and assault after a 1980 attack in Livonia. He married Gladys Anderson in 2004 while still incarcerated, and the couple divorced after his release in 2006.
In the 1980 incident, Anderson killed Brenda Barnett's father, Coleman Seaver, and left Barnett for dead after repeatedly stabbing her in the back. Barnett traveled from the Detroit area to Grand Traverse County for Anderson's proceedings.
"It definitely has made me stronger," she said. "I feel empowered; I feel somewhat triumphant. I not only faced him, I faced him well."
Barnett befriended the Seylers this year and remains in touch with them. Like the Seylers, she plans to move on, armed with the comfort of knowing a killer is behind bars.
"He got what he deserves," she said. "And he's finally in a position where he can't do anyone else any harm."
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