A family is speaking out about Susan LaForge, who was killed in March of 2023, but the man accused of her murder has languished in jail.
The case never moving forward keeps the grief alive, family members say.
Watch Susan LaForge story here:
“It was a pretty, pretty horrific scene,” said Daniel LaForge, Susan’s brother. "It was a very violent attack. It's still pretty hard to, to speak of."
LaForge was hoping other family would also speak about Susan, but it's still too traumatic.
"I'd asked some of my relatives to join me today, and, they couldn't because again the pain is still there," LaForge said. "The wound is still fresh."
The day keeps replaying for LaForge.
His sister was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend Terrell Spotted Wolf. Police say her body was found stuffed in a suitcase by her then 14-year-old son.
“My nephew and those boys just seeing that, they were pretty shocked by it,” LaForge said. “The mind of some pretty strange things when you have a traumatic event like that."
Spotted Wolf's attorney, Joe Zavatsky, says his client was supposed to be sent to the state mental facility in Warm Springs, but that did not happen.
Zavatsky says the facility has at least a year-long wait list.
“To go to the court every 90 or 120 days with an update of moving about 20 places on a wait list. It's frustrating,” Zavatsky said.
“Kind of gives us concern because it seems like it's kind of dragging out,” said LaForge.
All this waiting has deprived the defendant of a speedy trial, according to his attorney.
“So you have 200 days from arraignment to disposition or to a trial,” Zavatsky said.
Zavatsky says he believes a second mental health facility would have helped this case move faster.
The family of Susan LaForge has experienced this before.
Daniel says no one was ever charged in the shooting death of his nephew, 23-year-old Steven Bearcrane in 2005.
“It brings a lot of stress and it brings kind of a lot of hard feelings and knowing that we, we may potentially go down that road again,.” LaForge said.
And less than a month before Susan was killed, another nephew, 21-year-old Beau Harlan Beaumont, was shot outside America's Wild West Saloon in February of 2023.
Now the family waits for the trial and remembers Susan.
“She was always there to listen because she understood that we were all on our journey,” Laforge sad. “She always liked to see the best of people.”
