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COMING FRIDAY: As the constant face of all local crime victims, Miriam Fife learned from the court prosecutors she worked with the last 25 years that every criminal case is different and reviewed individually. The outcome of certain cases isn’t always to the liking of victims close to the case.
Fife makes it her job to explain to families how a criminal case — no matter how violent — is resolved.
Who better to explain the process than the local woman who has probably spent more time in a courtroom than any other woman in Trumbull County history.
Fife, 74, retired today from her full-time job with the county Prosecutor’s Office but will continue to work on a volunteer basis.
Her job as one of the county’s first crime victims’ rights advocates developed out the constant reminder of the worst day of her life.
Of the countless cases she has followed, there were none followed more closely than that of Danny Lee Hill, sentenced to death for the Sept. 10, 1985, murder of her son, Raymond Fife, 12, who was beaten, sexually tortured, strangled with his underwear, set afire and left for dead.
Hill, then 18, and 17-year-old Timothy Combs attacked Raymond while he was riding his bike to a Boy Scouts meeting. Combs is serving a life sentence since he was not eligible for the death sentence as a juvenile.
Hill has remained on death row since 1986. Fife still follows Hill’s case every step of the way, including the convicted murderer’s recent attempts at a retrial in his case.
“My work has actually kept Raymond’s name out there. He was my baby,” Fife said.
“After my son was murdered, I developed this connection to other victims. I kept getting contacted by people. They told me to be strong. They said if I could get through it (watching Hill’s trial), then they could do it,” she said.
Read the full story in the Friday Tribune Chronicle.