Sunrise

We are getting ready for another day at court. We had the most beautiful sunrise this morning. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Day 2 of Trial

Today was day 2 of trial. It was a really tough day. They spent the whole mentally exhausting day going over the crime scene. Karen and I had to step out of the court room a couple of times...it was bad. Tomorrow we will hear my Aunt Janet testify. They will play my mothers last conversation and words that she shared with my Aunt Janet. It is bittersweet. I look forward to hearing her voice again but I know it will hurt.

Today, one of the times I left the court room, the victims advocate followed me.....I was crying...she said.."Your mom isn't in those pictures." I said "I know, but she was...."

Trial Update

Hello everyone. Today I will be attending trial. The jury was selected last Friday and they had opening arguements. They also began going over the crime scene. I flew into town on Sunday with my grandmother. Alot of my family came in over the weekend. We had a relaxing day (as well as you can relax) yesterday because there was no court due to the Jewish holiday. My Aunt Janet and Uncle Dennis met with the DA to go over their testimony. They are the ones that found my mother..... They have told me about that day and all I can say it was horrible.

This morning I am a basket of nerves. I am watching the sunrise over the ocean and it is beautiful. I am just trying to think of all the beauty I have in this world and know that we have alot of people praying and thinking about us. I know that somehow we will all get through this.

Jury selection continues....

Jury selection is going to continue today. I spoke with Karen late last night and she said that it was really hard being in the court room. She said that the defense attorney was questioning the jury candidates and asking them if they thought they could look at bloody, gruesome, crime scene photos. Needless to say they lost alot of candidates.

Seven years ago today is the day that I found out my Mother was killed. It was the worst day in my life. It started at 7am. My Aunt Lore (my father's sister) called and said that she wanted to bring over something for Lauren before she left for work. At 7:30 she arrived on my door step with my Uncle Eddie' (my father's brother). I thought this was strange. They both looked a wreck. They sat me down and told me my mother had died and that they really didn't know any details...she was dead. I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I felt feelings that no body should have to feel. After I calmed down a little we called my Dad. He told me my mother was murdered. I can not even describe to you how that felt. It is a place I hope you will never have to go.

That day the news rippled throughout my family. Each of us crumbling. The news was too awful to handle. My grandmother (father's mother) had a heart attack when she was told. My mother's father died. Something in all of us died that day.

This morning is the 7th anniversary of my Mother's murder. My sister always spends it at my Mother's Grave. This one she is sitting in the courtroom with my Mother's murderer. I know my Mother is sitting there right by her side. She left these flowers before she left Danbury.

Day 3 of Jury selection

Today was day three of Jury selection. It is going really slowly. I switched my flight to arrive in Florida on Sunday. I was packing my bags and came across some of my Mom's items that I plan to bring with me. Her rosary, and her bible from when she made her first communion. My dad gave me the little Bible for Lauren to carry the day she made hers.

All of your thoughts and prayers are so appreciated by our family.

Tonight is the night before the anniversary of her murder. It will be seven years tomorrow.

We learned alot about what she did the night before she was murdered during the first trial.... My Mother met Michael Gosciminski to get my grandfather's items from the assisted living facility. He actually never even stayed there 24 hours. My grandfather was too sick to be ever admitted there and he was quickly moved to hospice.

At Lyford Cove he met her and helped her out to her car with my grandfather's items. Her twin sister and brother were coming into town the next day and she was going to be coming home soon. My grandfather wasn't doing well. Gosciminski learned that night of her plans. He knew she was going to still be alone the next morning, but not any longer and that his window of opportunity was going away. He placed a phone call to her cell phone at 10pm the night before she was murdered. Strange for an assisted living sales director to call that late? I think so.

Tomorrow is going to be a really hard day for my family. It is always a hard day but knowing that my sister and father will be sitting face to face with my mother's murderer in Florida on the anniversary of her death gives me chills. I will say a prayer and know that God will give us the strength to do this again.

Day 2 of Jury Selection

Today was exhausting. I thought I was going to be getting on a plane tomorrow to be in Florida for the start of trial. We estimated it would start on Thursday. Jury selection is going at a snails pace. It seems everyone knows about the first trial and those that didn't have been reading the papers about the retrial.

I will be able to spend another day home since now we are now estimating opening statements on Friday at the earliest. I will keep you all posted.

Jury selection starts today...

Today is the beginning of jury selection. Jenny, one of our best friends is joining my sister in the court room today. Jenny was like a daughter to my mom. Karen and I think of her as a sister. As I write this morning I am reminded of all the things this Jury is not going to get to hear....

They will not be even referring to my mom by her name. She will simply be known as "The Victim". They will not hear of the 27 years she dedicated to the Girl Scouts, that she was a PTA mom, that she lit up a room, that she was always the friend that you could turn to, that she was the best mom, friend, wife, sister, ever.

The pictures they will see of her are gruesome. They will not get to see her beautiful face. Michael Gosciminski destroyed it.

They will not hear all the evidence from our civil case. That Gosciminski was arrested weeks before murdering my mother for breaking his girlfriends arm. That numerous patients families had jewelry stolen from the nursing home he worked at. That a hunting knife was taken from a patient, placed in a safe that Gosciminski had access to, and then was missing after the murder.

They will hear of the murderous path Gosciminski took...and the trail he left with his cell phone right to the front door of my Grandfathers house. They will hear my Mother's last words. Her last telephone conversation was captured on her twin sisters trading firm's records. She says goodbye someone is at the door.....

Our Parents

Our parents were married for 35 years. Yesterday my father arrived in Florida to get ready to attend jury selection with my sister and all of our other family members and friends. I can't believe we are actually going to do this again! He will have to once again take the stand and tell about his conversations that he had with my mother, about Gosiminski remarking about her jewelry. About how he called and called my mom's phone after Gosiminski murdered her....and got no answer.

Our Last Words

I remember my last conversations I had with my mother like they were just yesterday. She was in Florida trying to get my Grandfather comfortable and moved into an Assisted Living Facility, Lyford Cove. She wasn't feeling well and all she wanted to do was to come home. She missed her family and wanted to know all about what we were up to.

She called me because she was trying to figure out how to get my Grandfathers personal items to the assisted living facility. She told me all about meeting Michael Gosciminski. She had arranged for him to come over and move the furniture for her. He was going to do this free of charge since she was a customer. She said he was so nice to do this for her.

She told me that he thought her jewelry was really nice and that he was really into jewelry. She told me that he was going to be getting a two carat engagement ring for his girlfriend just like hers. That his girlfriend liked diamonds and emeralds just like her. He wanted my mom to take a look at the ring before he gave it to his girlfriend to make sure it was a nice diamond......

I thought that this was strange. I told her that deliveries for furniture usually cost $150 for my own Home Furnishings store. I told her how to find a mover that would professionally move the pieces. I thought his interest in her jewelry was strange.

Little did we know but the diamond ring he was referring to was hers. That he would brutally murder her for it.

I told her I loved her and she said that she loved me too, give Lauren a kiss for her, and she would see me soon........

Posted by Nancy Hilliard

Back to do it all over again....

Today I sit and try to remain calm.....

I am preparing to once again attend my Mother's Murder Trial. It still feels so surreal that this has really happened to me and my family. I look at my children and it is so over whelming......my oldest has fond memories of my mother, and the other two never got to meet her. My mother never got the chance to hold them when they were born or share any Birthdays or Holidays. I still have the card that she gave me on my wedding day. She couldn't wait to be a Grandmother.

For the past two days Michael Gosciminski has been broadcasting jail cell videos of himself. It is quite sickening. I can't watch them. He murdered my mother in cold blood and he shows not one sign of remorse. He portrays himself as a wrongly accused victim and that he was framed. He is no victim. He is a murderer, and he needs to stay in jail forever. He preyed on my mother and gained her trust. He went to my grandfather's house and brutally killed her for her jewelry. He proposed with my Mother's Diamond Ring to his girlfriend the same day he murdered my Mother. He couldn't wait to show it off! He valued that diamond more than my Mother's life.

We already went through the pain and agony of the first trial and he was given the death penalty. We now have to do it again....all because the Supreme Court of Florida didn't like the fact that the DA told the jury that Gosciminski didn't even wipe the blood off my Mother's ring that he gave his girlfriend. Well, he didn't wipe the blood off the ring! That is why everyone discribed it as blackened!

I have a knot in my stomach that will not go away. I have to sit in the court room with my relatives and be in the same room as her murderer again.....

Posted by Nancy Hilliard