COLUMBUS, OH—There are families who wake up every day without answers. For the loved ones of Yvonne Norris, that reality has been going on for over thirty years. Her daughter, Shavonne, resembles her mother, and her family continues to endure the pain and push for justice.
According to the Columbus Police Department, on August 27, 1989, witnesses saw 26-year-old Yvonne Norris return to her apartment at 1335 Summit Avenue around 9:30 p.m. Yvonne was a nursing student working for a catering company and the mother of four children: Shavonne, 8, Myka, 4, Darrell, 6, and Michael, 2. Shavonne and Myka stayed at their grandmother’s that evening, while Darrell and Michael went home with Yvonne. But something unthinkable happened. Around 2:15 am, someone kicked in the door, and a struggle ensued between Yvonne and her attacker. Yvonne was strangled and placed in the bathtub in an upstairs bedroom. Her hands and feet were bound, and they turned scalding hot water on the struggling mother, still alive. The assailant set the house on fire.
When Columbus firefighters entered the apartment, they rescued Michael and Darrell and found the young mother with her hands tied behind her back in the bathtub; she died from smoke inhalation.…