Parents remember daughter who lost life in a single moment of violence

Every day Bill Albu reads about people dying -- in drive-by shootings, in car accidents, on college campuses.

He thinks of the victims' families and how their lives will never be the same. Sorrow will follow them to the grocery store, to family weddings, everywhere.

He knows.

His daughter, former Arlington Heights resident Katie Albu Spain, 28, was spending a quiet night at home with her son when she heard a smoke alarm go off somewhere in her building.

She opened her front door and ran into Matthew Cunningham, who had just killed his roommate, Robert Barker. Cunningham then stabbed Albu more than 30 times. She died in the hallway of her Phoenix apartment building in Arizona.

Police later found her son, Marlon, 2, unhurt and crying in his crib. Police put a blanket over Marlon's head and carried him past the apartment's swimming pool and out of the gated complex.

This all happened three years ago.

This month, Cunningham was found guilty of killing Albu and his roommate. The jury trial began on Nov. 26.

According to witnesses and evidence, Cunningham, 30, was frustrated with his life and attacked his roommate, Robert Barker, 38, after losing his job and being told he would either need to get a new one or move out.

After Cunningham stabbed his roommate to death in the presence of a dozen witnesses, he then chased others before coming upon Albu, who had walked out of her apartment to see what the commotion was about. Cunningham then stabbed Albu.

The next day, two Arlington Heights police officers rang the doorbell of Bill and Pat Albu, Katie's parents.

The parents attended the first part of the trial, but they couldn't take months of court descriptions of how their only daughter was killed.

Despite the guilty verdict, the couple said they will never find closure. They don't care if Cunningham gets life in prison or the death penalty.

"I don't let him eat away at me anymore," Pat said.

"She opened the door at the wrong time," said Bill, who suffered a stroke two years ago. He speaks slower now and when he talks about his daughter he looks at his hands. "I don't care what happens to him anymore," he said of Cunningham. "I don't want to concern myself with him."

His daughter did not know Cunningham, Bill said.

Katie Albu graduated from Rolling Meadows High School in 1994. Her freshman year she joined the girls golf team in only its second year in existence. She was the first Lady Mustang to break 50 for nine holes.

During her high school years, she also participated in cheerleading, poms and Orchesis Club. Albu left the area to attend Michigan State University, where she was a member of a sorority, before transferring to Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, where she graduated with honors in 1998 with a degree in human resource development.

After separating from her husband, Albu went to Phoenix a year before she was killed to make a fresh start for her and her son, working as a corporate recruiter for Equity Residential, which is part of Equity Properties, headquartered in Chicago.

She has two brothers who are both married and live in Chicago -- Nick, 28, and Chris, 34.

Today, Bill and Pat watch Marlon, who is 5 years old, every other weekend and for longer periods in the summer. Marlon lives with his father in Huntley.

Bill is still working at Prudential Financial, and Pat is semi-retired from medical billing, currently on sick leave after knee replacement surgery. The couple, empty nesters for about six years, golf in summer and tour local antique and art shows.

When Bill reads the paper, he feels for parents who lose children. Parents like him and Pat.

"There are people who walk around with unbelievable sorrow in their lives and you'd never know it," Bill said. "These are the most compassionate people."

Everything is different now for the couple. When their two sons married, there was a gaping hole in the celebrations where their daughter should have been.

"It's like when I go to a party, I don't really want to meet new people," Pat said. "The first thing people always ask is how many kids do you have."

Pat and Bill are happy Marlon was too young to remember the night his mother was killed.

And they're sad.

"He doesn't remember Katie, but he has her eyes," Pat said. "Katie would've been so proud of Marlon. She just loved being a mom."

The jury is expected to rule within a few days on whether Cunningham should get the death penalty. He apologized but didn't ask for mercy when he spoke to the jury Wednesday.

"I just want to say how sorry I am for what happened, that I did these horrible things. If there's anything I can do to go back in time I would, but we all have to live with it," he said, according to the Ahwatukee Foothills News. "The victims' families I'm not going to ask for forgiveness because I don't think that's possible. I just hope that you can find some kind of peace. That's all."