But it wasn't until two days later, when friends and family were gathered in church on a Sunday night for a special prayer service, that everyone learned Jeanine had been murdered.

"It was just tragic," Heywood said.

He still lives in the same house, where he's been for almost 50 years now, and continues to follow the Nicarico case.

Jeanine's parents moved out soon after the murder, but Heywood's children stayed in touch and remain friends with her older sisters.

His children still participate in the race that benefits the Jeanine Nicarico Memorial Literacy Fund.

Several people have moved in and out of the Nicarico house, Heywood said, and the newer residents likely don't even know what occurred there.

Although he saw that the crime made the Nicaricos' life a "living hell" and laments that Jeanine would have been 36 if she were still alive, Heywood doesn't believe her confessed killer, Brian Dugan, needs to be put to death for justice to be served.

"God takes life, God gives life," he said. "What's it gonna prove by killing him?"