A Bad Place to Die

And Jeanne says she realizes now that she never completely knew Robbie Bayley.

"He told me once that, 'I know you think it's the people I run around with that make me like this. But, Mom, it's not them. It's me.' "

Last Christmas, right about the time Stanley Nicholas was arrested, Calvin Bayley went into the woods where Robbie was murdered and erected a small wooden cross at the site where his son's body was found. On the cross is the name Robbie A. Bayley. Calvin thinks about how Robbie was left there to die.

"I can remember when I was a kid and we'd be driving down the road and cars would be stopped, blocking traffic," says Calvin. "The next thing you knew there would be an old man or woman running across the road with a dog that somebody had hit wrapped up in their arms." He pauses, stricken by the notion that a dog would get more attention than his son.

Jeanne Bayley thinks the cross a simple, appropriate memorial. A bluejay feather and several small, hard berries have been placed atop it recently.

"I can see why the kids go out there," says Jeanne. "That's an awesome place. I mean, you're in the woods. You could be on a safari or an adventure. It is a great place to meet the Lord. I remember looking around and thinking, 'This is where my son died. This is the last thing he saw.' "

In many ways, she thinks, it wouldn't be that bad a place to die. "But I don't think," she says finally, "that the way he died was a good way to die.