I'll start by telling you about my sister, and her murder. Her name was Cheryl Tavares.  She had a husband David, three sons, David, Joel and Cory aged 13, 15, and 21.  Two of them are special needs children. She also left behind my parents John and Cindy, and her sisters, Marie and Tanya {that's me}.

Cheryl was a wonderful, beautiful person inside and out. She was a professional hairstylist and often her days were booked solid - her clients all loved her. She had lupus and fibromyalgia and often was in serious pain, but never once complained and worked through the day without a break - she even did clients at her home if they were unable to pay full salon prices.

Cheryl would work all day, come home and cook her family a meal, then clean and do laundry. She was a totally devoted mother and wife. Her and her husband were just about to celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary the week she died. They had just bought a new home a year before and she was so proud. Everything was really going well for her - she was going to take ownership of the salon she worked at this year; that was her dream.

I often wondered how Cheryl did it all. With 2 special needs children it was tough, but she never got angry at them. She was so patient and understanding and did everything she could for her children. I got sick this past year and had to stop work. She was always picking me up to go shopping for her home on Mondays { that was her day off} and then I would stay for dinner every Monday night. I'm so grateful I spent this time with her now.

Everyone Cheryl met instantly liked her. She was one of those people who made you feel really good no matter who you were. Her passions were hairstyling, gardening, decorating and of course shopping!  Her favorite colors were purple and light green.

Cheryl had just turned 40 and was definitely in her prime, with so many plans and dreams until this man took this away from her.

The night of her murder started just like any other Sunday - Cheryl and her husband went to get iced coffee, then to Walmart. From there they came to my parents house and hung out for awhile like usual.

Cheryl announced that they were going to go for a few drinks since they hadn't been out since buying the house, so they left to go to a local club. They stayed there until about 11:30 that night, talking to people they hadn't seen for awhile, then got back to their house around 12:00.  My sister, who was so full of energy at this point, wanted to go 5 minutes down the street for last call before calling it a night. Her husband didn't want to go because he had to work the next day - she even asked her 21 year old son to go, but he also declined, so she said she would be back soon and left. Her husband thought it was harmless 5 minutes away and all, so he let her go.

Apparently, there was a 20-year-old man there that night, playing pool. He was seen asking women for a ride home - he asked my sister who said she couldn't give him a ride and he proceeded to leave the bar. My sister was one of the last people to leave the bar. She was seen walking alone to her car, after that we don't know what happened.  Investigators think he was either inside her car {she never locked her doors} or had hopped in after she had gotten in.

When her husband woke up the following morning, he thought maybe she had come to my parents house for the night. She sometimes did this if she felt she couldn't drive, so he called only to find she wasn't there and had not called my parents. We thought maybe she was over at one of her friends' houses or something - we didn't want to believe anything had happened. Her husband called around, went to the local hospitals, but nothing came up. He finally went to the local police department and said his wife was missing. Even though it hadn't been a full 24 hours, he lied just so they would start a search.

A few hours later the Bourne police department called her husband on his cell phone and told him they got a tip from a local jail, apparently either the murderer himself, or the other 2 that were involved after the fact had called a guard there and said to check out a car at a local park and ride. They checked out the car, but the doors were locked, so they asked my brother-in-law to bring a spare key so they could open it. When he got there, they took the keys and proceeded to put the yellow crime scene tape around the car, and wouldn't let him anywhere near the car. They brought him to the police station to wait for some word about what was found.

At first they only told him that she was found inside her car, passed away, so we thought maybe she had pulled off the road and because she took painkillers for her lupus and with her drinking that it had interacted or something. We didn't find out until the next morning that she was found in her trunk, and that changed everything, it meant she was murdered.

We got the call around 11:05 that night. I knew something was terribly wrong and so did my mother, so when the phone rang and my brother-in-law said she was gone, my mother just screamed. I can still remember those words that my mother said, and I replay it over and over and it hurts. My dad came downstairs and was also screaming. It was a total nightmare and everything was so surreal, I'll never forget that night.

They caught the murderer in Maine, and we live in Massachusetts. He had two friends that he went to after the murder and they helped him to flee the state. He was found at his uncle's house. They transported him back here were he's now held without bail. Of course his story is ridiculous - he says that him and my sister engaged in rough sex and he strangled her during the act, but the medical examiner cannot determine if she was indeed strangled or if she was suffocated. There weren't enough marks on her neck I guess to make it a definite strangulation. Her clothes were on when she was found, but they say that it looked like she was re-dressed. So he apparently killed her, then took the time to dress her and place her in the trunk. There are still labs being done to see if there was indeed any sexual contact and if she was raped, which we think she was. She would never, ever in a million years have rough sex with anyone!!

The trial starts next month, it is going to a grand jury. My family has many questions about what happened that night. We just hope he is punished appropriately for what he did! This has been a complete shock to my family; her husband is so lost without her and the kids are devastated. I'm still in shock and disbelief and I can't seem to come to terms with the fact that she is gone. I miss her terribly, and of course I think that maybe if I had gone that night with them that maybe this wouldn't have happened, but I know that even if I was there that it could've also been me in that trunk with her.

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