It was a year ago Wednesday that 11-year-old Pocatello newspaper carrier Jeralee Underwood was abducted from a city street as she collected from her customers.
The girl later was found dead, and James Edward Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for the crime.On the first anniversary of the abduction, the girl's parents, Joyce and Jeff Underwood, will gather with family, friends and community. At Jeralee's gravesite at Restlawn Memorial Gardens, the Underwoods will release 12 balloons containing messages of hope and love.
The parents feel Jeralee would approve. "She would have been right in the middle of it, enjoying herself," Joyce Underwood said.
It's been a hard year for the family.
"I never knew anything could hurt so much," Joyce Underwood said.
"To lose a child to an illness or an accident is totally different than how we lost our child," Jeff Underwood said.
What would have been the girl's 12th birthday, Jan. 9, was hard on Jeff. Joyce had a hard time on Mother's Day. Last year, Jeralee made breakfast for her mother as a gift.
Jeralee's body was found along the Snake River at Idaho Falls, 50 miles north of Pocatello. The family went to the murder site about a month ago, spending a half hour walking the area. Being there made Jeralee's death real for them. And it helped Joyce separate sometimes-horrible fantasy from the reality of the crime.
"Detail is important to me. I had to know what had really happened. Nothing could have been worse than all the rumors and things we'd been imagining," she said. "We felt we had to go there, but we had to do it at a time when we were ready."
After the cemetery observance, a picnic and entertainment are planned at Pocatello's Ross Park.