It's been 13 years since Melanie Larsen was kidnapped from a Kaysville convenience store, sexually molested, repeatedly drugged and taken to Nebraska before escaping. The terror of her abduction has dimmed, but it is always there, every day.
"I haven't let it control my life. If I did, I would be a total basket case. I would probably be nuts," said Larsen, who still lives in northern Utah. She is married and has a 2-year-old daughter.Because of what happened to her when she was 10, Larsen is especially aware of what can happen to a child. She keeps her daughter near her side, away from strangers.
"I guess I'm really overprotective. I won't let her out of my sight. I won't even let her out in the (fenced) back yard without the dogs to watch her," Larsen said.
In the years since Larsen was abducted on July 23, 1982, her kidnapper has pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, served seven years of a 15-year sentence, and was paroled. Larry D. Nielsen was a 28-year-old Salt Lake radio disc jockey when he kidnapped Larsen.
"Seven years is not enough for what he did," said Larsen, who worries the state will drop its minimum mandatory sentencing for child sex offenders.
"First of all, they've violated an innocent child. That person needs to spend a minimum amount of time in jail, to keep them away from people, away from children. But I don't think any time is long enough."
She said she also believes justice isn't done until both offenders and victims get proper counseling.
Because Larsen's elementary school classmates in Kaysville taunted her, the family moved to Layton. By the time she went to Sunset Junior High and Clearfield High, however, "people forgot."
But Larsen hasn't forgotten. She has joined Missing Children of Utah to help others deal with the fear and dread she survived.
The Legislature has already voted to end minimum mandatory sentences, which require judges to give those convicted of child sex abuse prison sentences of 15, 10 or five years.
However, during an April special session, the lawmakers delayed the effective date of the change to April 29, 1996, giving the Utah Sentencing Commission the rest of this year to recommend any middle-ground changes.
The Sentencing Commission's first public hearing is at noon Thursday, and it will take testimony from victims rights advocates. The panel and its subcommittees will meet through the summer to collect comment.
Larsen believes Nielsen didn't get enough punishment on Earth, but he will from God. "The way I believe, he'll get it in the end, in the next life," she said. "I can live with that."