Vigil honors victim on day of killer's release
Friends, relatives and strangers gathered by candlelight at the Batavia Riverwalk Tuesday night to honor the memory of murder victim Andrea Will of Batavia.
The vigil was organized by her mother and sister for the day her killer was released from prison.
His name was purposely not mentioned.
“It really wasn't about him,” said Luke McCabe of St. Charles, husband of Jessica Will McCabe, Andrea's sister. “This is supposed to be about Andrea.”
Some in the crowd wore T-shirts that said “Team Andrea,” and buttons with her picture.
“The love and support ... gets us through each day and makes us stronger,” Jessica Will McCabe told the crowd.
It was one of several dozen vigils held around the country, including one in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Will's murderer is moving to be with his wife. And on the Facebook page “Voices for Andrea Faye Will,” people who couldn't attend vigils burned virtual candles. The page has attracted more than 3,100 members since its creation last week.
Members of the sorority to which Will belonged when she attended Eastern Illinois University formed a circle on the stage of the Peg Bond Center. They passed a single candle around five times in remembrance of Will, for domestic violence victims who survived, in remembrance of those who haven't, for women currently experiencing it (“may you learn your voice is strong”) and for all Sigma Kappa sorority sisters.
“The candlelight tonight is in memory of our dear Andrea. Her light will forever shine in the hearts and minds of those who know her,” said her mother, Patricia Rosenberg, her voice catching as she held back tears. “That this vigil was held today is representative enough of the injustice victims of domestic violence suffer every day of their lives.
“My child is gone, but her spirit lives on in her family friends, in all of those bearing a candle.”
More than 100 people attended the vigil.
Will was an 18-year-old freshman at EIU when she was killed by her ex-boyfriend, Justin Boulay of St. Charles, in February 1998. Boulay was found guilty in a bench trial in Coles County in 1999 and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
His case came during a gap between truth-in-sentencing laws in Illinois, as an early version was declared unconstitutional and the new version took effect a month after he was sentenced. Those laws would have required him to serve 100 percent of his sentence. Instead, with day-for-day credit for good behavior in prison, Boulay was released on parole Tuesday.
He married a former high school girlfriend in 2007. She teaches at a medical school at the University of Hawaii. His parole will be supervised by Hawaii officials.
Andrea Will's father could not be reached for comment; the Wills divorced in 1999. Boulay's parents moved to Michigan and could not be reached for comment. Boulay's wife has not returned phone calls or e-mail messages seeking comment.