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Memories Of Sheila Levesque Still Fresh, Nearly 3 Decades Later

MALDEN (CBS) -- Her memories are surreal.

Twenty-nine years to the day, Ronnell Levesque found her mother, 35-year-old Sheila Levesque, lying on her bedroom floor barely breathing.

"I just remember as a child, it was something a nine-year-old should've never seen," Levesque said.

Sheila Levesque was stabbed to death in the family's Malden apartment back in 1988, a memory relatives tried to help her children forget.

Sheila Levesque
Sheila Levesque is seen in a family photo. (WBZ-TV)

"Our grandparents took us away from this. They didn't want us to stay in a home and remember something like that," Ronnell Levesque said.

But the moments of that night were too strong to erase.

Levesque's children were home sleeping when she was attacked.

"I was awoken by my little brother and he had told me he hears mom," Levesque told WBZ.

Jeremy Ruschak is the youngest of the six children. He was just seven at the time of the murder.

"My mother's door in this apartment here is just directly across from me and my brother's, so it's just the first thing you would notice is just light on," Ruschak said.

"She wasn't screaming or anything like that she was just laying there. She was still breathing and we contacted 911," Levesque said.

Three decades later, her children celebrated their mom with a candlelight vigil, focusing on the beauty of her life.

"She was just a good person, loving caring, always there and always wanting to teach you the right way of doing things so that was her main goal," Ruschak said.

Tammy Dalton lives nearby. She was 14 when Levesque was killed.

"They're very nice people and it's a sad thing that did happen," Dalton said.

Malden Police have made no arrests in the case.

"All I ever look for are answers. If justice ever gets served, we're talking about almost three decades, 29 years later. Is that person still alive? Answers would be great for me. I'd be happy with that," Ruschak said.

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