VRABEL CASE Victims' family wants answer to '89 killings
The convicted killer said he didn't know why he shot his girlfriend.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The family of two murder victims has always wanted the chance to speak to the man who was sentenced to death for the crimes.
"One question: Why?" said Anthony Clemente, 73, the father and grandfather of the victims.
With Stephen Vrabel's execution scheduled for July 14, the state is considering the family's wish.
Vrabel killed his girlfriend, Susan Clemente, and their daughter, Lisa Clemente, on March 3, 1989. Prosecutors never established a motive.
Vrabel told police that he didn't know why he shot Susan in the head. He said with their 3-year-old daughter "freaking out" at the sight, he shot her in the head, figuring it was best because her mother was dead and he was going to jail.
"For 15 years everybody's been asking him why," Anthony Clemente said Tuesday of attorneys and others working on the case. "I doubt that he's going to give us an answer."
Vrabel, 47, of Struthers has dropped his appeals and has asked to be put to death. He would be the second Ohio death row inmate in five years to voluntarily abandon court appeals to speed his execution. Wilford Berry, dubbed "The Volunteer," was the first, in February 1999.
Request for 'victim dialogue'
Attorney General Jim Petro wrote a letter to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on Monday stating that the Clemente family wants to speak to Vrabel through a "victim dialogue."
Petro wrote that he felt they should have the opportunity, provided Vrabel cooperates.
Anthony Clemente, of Struthers, said he didn't know of anyone in his family who recently put in a request to speak with Vrabel. But he said it's been a long-standing wish of the family to ask Vrabel why he committed the murders.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Office of Victims' Services is speaking with the family to make sure they still want to speak with Vrabel, spokeswoman JoEllen Culp said.
Three days after the killings, Vrabel stuffed his girlfriend's body in the refrigerator and his daughter's in the freezer, along with her favorite stuffed animals, a bear and bunny. He spent a month living in his Struthers apartment with the bodies in the refrigerator and freezer.
Vrabel spent 1990 to 1994 at a psychiatric center because he was ruled incompetent to stand trial. He was eventually ruled competent in 1995.