One year after downtown murders, family still grieves

Thu, Jul 2, 2009    to del.icio.us

Linda Karell said the past 365 days have been the worst of hers and her family's lives.

A year ago today, her husband, Robert Karell, was gunned down inside his downtown Grand Haven jewelry store along with Louis Paparella, a customer who had arrived to pick up rolls of state quarters.

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Since that time, two brothers have been arrested, tried and convicted of the murders and robbing the store. Darick and Dmitri Anderson were sentenced to life in prison for the crimes.

But even a year later, Linda Karell says the family is still grieving.

"We just miss him," she said, describing Robert as the "centerpiece" of the family. "It's hard to take out the core and not miss that."

Karell's daughter, Staci Czadzeck, left R.K. Jewelers — where she worked as a goldsmith — to change her wet clothes following a downpour shortly after lunchtime on July 2, 2008. When she returned, she found her father lying on the floor of his office in the back of the store.

After a panicked 911 call, emergency responders found Paparella's body in the front of the store, 124 Washington Ave. Shortly after that, authorities said they knew it was a crime scene.

In the immediate aftermath, Darick Anderson was arrested. About a month after that, Dmitri Anderson joined his brother in the Ottawa County Jail; and the murder weapon, a .22-caliber Ruger handgun, was unearthed behind a Muskegon Heights home. The ensuing months culminated with the trials, convictions and life sentences of the brothers.

"(The police) were on it right from the beginning," Linda Karell said.

But the convictions haven't helped Karell's daughter, Lindsay Koopmans, personally move past her father's death. She said she's glad the Andersons are in prison and can't do the same thing to another family, but her family is still trying to cope with it.

"Things haven't gotten any easier (in the past year)," Koopmans said. "We're still trying to find a way to get by without him."

At one time, Koopmans worked at the store with her father five days a week and saw him on the weekends, she said. She plans to reopen the jewelry store with her mother as a family business, although there is no timetable for that to happen.

"Our plan has always been to keep his memory alive in the business that he loved," Linda Karell said.

Czadzeck had reopened the store about a month after the murders and it remained open for about five months, Linda said, but it was closed again before the Anderson brothers' trials.

The family will gather today for a barbecue and to remember Robert, Linda said.

"Hopefully we'll laugh most of the time," Koopmans said.

Tonight, the Grand Haven Musical Fountain will feature a song dedicated to Robert Karell's memory and in a show of the community's support for the family.

"You wouldn't have believed how caring people could be," Linda said. "I think Robert would have been awed."