You could hear the hurt, feel the loss in Dachel St. Mary’s voice as she talked about her daughter.
On Nov. 12, 2009, Tyler Jefferson, a new sailor in training at Corry Station was murdered while out for a jog in Myrtle Grove outside the base. She was only 18, recently trading in her high school graduation cap and gown for a tidy Navy outfit. She was studying information technology at Corry Station. She hoped to be sent to Japan. Maybe the Navy would be a full career, St. Mary said.
Or maybe there would be something else. After all, she was just a teenager. The future was wide open.
“She had thought about the Secret Service or something like that,” said her mother. “She would have been something else.”
This time of year is hard for St. Mary. She thinks of her daughter often, but come late October, early November, she just feels the dread come over her. She feels in in her bones.
“It brings a lot of emotion, and I try to rein it in,” she said. “But when it gets close to November, it’s like my body knows. I can feel the loss in my spirit.”