As is the case with any major event in life, the same can be said of news stories - there are just some events that stick with you no matter what. Events and feelings that you can never shake from responding to the scene, seeing everything first hand and talking with witnesses after the fact.

For me personally, two cases will always stand out -- cases that no matter how hard I try, I just can't shake -- the Shelby Duis murder trial and responding to the scene and concurrent stories thereafter of Sky Erickson's murder.

They say that as a first responder or someone involved in spot news journalism, that you become hardened to the world after seeing and hearing all that you have. After sitting through press conferences and court room trials for these two tragedies, I can definitely say that it will change a person.

Never again, after sitting through the arguments and watching photos and videos of the Duis murder trial will I ever look at an accused child killer the same -- innocent or guilty. I will never be able to listen to the defense's arguments without thinking of what was said about that little girl. Now as a mother, I will never be able to think of any child that has been abused without remembering the pictures of that little girl's lifeless body.

I remember that details of the Erickson murder trial came in quickly when they were finally released by local and federal agencies, and that KICD soon became the hub of all Midwestern regional media wanting to get information on the story. The specifics that came in were horrifying -- to any grown adult and to me, still in my teens at the time. I won't divulge the explicit details because they have been hashed through over and over in the media in recent months, but to say that they did -- and continue to -- make me sick is an understatement.

To hear that charges against those that allegedly committed these crimes had been dismissed was disgusting and frustrating. I can only hope for the sake of Erickson's family members that justice is done at some point and time.

My heart goes out to the family members, as well as to the officers and first responders who have to live with the memories of what they saw in these terrible tragedies. Just hearing about new details and trials stirs up all of the emotions all over again.

To say that these experiences change a person is an understatement, and we can only hope that justice in the very end is done.