ASHTABULA, Ohio — Whenever she talks about her little sister Kara Zdanczewski, Brea Robinson lights up.
"She was like always under my wing, always with me, all the time," said Robinson. "She was probably one of the smartest people I ever met."
But Robinson quickly snaps back to reality when she realizes she'll never see little Kara again.
"All I heard them say was they found a body in the woods and I collapsed," she said.
Kara was killed when she was just 13 years old. John Bove murdered her and then set her body on fire in May of 2017 in Ashtabula.
"I feel like it could have all been prevented, I feel like the whole situation just should gave never happened," said Robinson.
Robinson says she's still upset about her step-fathers involvement in Kara's death.
Her step-dad owed Bove a $3,000 drug debt. Bove says he planned to return Kara safely after he got the money, but that never happened.
He says he killed Kara, who would have turned 15 on Sunday, because he was high on crystal meth and he'd taken more that day than ever before.
Robinson blames her stepfather.
"I resent him for that, and there's a lot more that I resent him for on top of that," she said.
Bove was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robinson says she's relieved, but it doesn't help during those lonely nights when she's thinking about all her beautiful sister could have been.
"I know she definitely wanted to be a veterinarian," she said. "Her goal was to get a bus and go across the country saving animals."
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