BROCK - A painful yearly ritual has begun for friends, relatives and many strangers trying to keep a man in prison for killing four teenage girls from the tiny town of Brock, west of Fort Worth.
They were athletes, scholars and church friends, who died together in a car, crushed by a drunk driver.
Freedom for that driver may now hinge on a website.
A chipped and weathered Santa Claus next to a grave recalls Christmas of 1998, when four families buried their daughters, and the little Parker County town of Brock grieved and seethed with anger.
"I always tell everybody, buy a casket for a 17-year-old girl on Christmas Eve," said Mark Osina.
Mark and Liz Osina lost Lacey. She was in the car with 16-year-old friends, Whitney Welch and Staci Lee.
Mandi McWhorter was the youngest - just 15.
Rickey Carter was 40-years-old and drunk when he hit the girls head-on.
Jurors sentenced him to 20-years in prison - the most they could give him.
"That was for four girls. Basically, he's served two and a half years for each girl, so far... I think my daughter is worth more than two and a half years," said Mark Osina.
This year, the day after what would have been Lacey Osina's 29th birthday, her parents got a letter from the parole board.
It said Carter will be considered for release in October, so begins the Osina's annual fight to stop it.
"When people forget, and people stop saying they care about what happens, that's when it's over," said Liz Osina.
It's far from over and the Osinas are far from fighting alone.
Another Parker County resident launched a website called www.keepRickeyCarterin jail.com.
It keeps letters pouring into parole officials who must make the decision.
"It's hard to ask people to keep reliving this with us every year because you always think you should be over it by now. It seems like it happened just yesterday," said Mark Osina.
Prosecutor Jeff Swain, who handled the case, says the website has definitely helped keep Rickey Carter locked up.
"Our whole community looks at DWI differently because of that case," Swain said.
The girls would likely be married and starting their own families by now.
Three of the four girls are buried side by side at the Brock cemetery. Whitney Welch has a marker, although she's at a different cemetery. Lacey was still alive when Whitney was laid to rest.
Some say enough time has passed and that Carter had a clean record, a good reputation and deserves a second chance to be free.
"I'm angry. I'm angry when I hear that," said Liz Osina.
The Osinas haven't been in Texas to tend their daughter's grave.
Mark took a good coaching job in Georgia a couple years ago but they're moving back.
"I have to be with her. I can't be that far away from her," Liz Osina said.
They've been thinking about all the people now living with Lacey's organs and tissues and they'd like to find and meet the man who carries her still beating heart.
"I know he's a father. And he has children," Liz Osina said.
E-mail: jdouglas@wfaa.com
