ANGER IS DIRECTED AT SYSTEM

But every so often, there's another development in The Case - and the pain, frustration and anger bubble to the surface again.

More than 10 years ago, in March 1985, David Brewer of Washington Twp., a college friend of Byrne's, lured Byrne's 21-year-old bride, Sherry, to a Sharonville motel, where police believe he raped her. Then he drove around Beavercreek with Sherry Byrne in his trunk before killing her along Factory Road and depositing her body in a storage locker in Franklin.

Brewer, who later admitted killing the former Vandalia woman, was linked to the crime because motorists in Beavercreek told police they saw a note reading "help me please" protruding from his trunk. Sherry Byrne had scrawled the note with lipstick from her purse.

Joe Byrne, who has lived in central New Jersey since 1988, thinks Ohio should have long ago imposed the death sentence that Brewer received from the three-judge panel that heard his case in Greene County.

"It's a ridiculous system that's very slanted toward the bad guy," he said. "I'm not bloodthirsty by any means, but either we're going to do it, or we're not. It's been through eight or nine appeals already, and they tell me it's going to be another six years.

"I still have a lot of anger, and my anger now is toward the system," he said. "The (legal) process has nothing to do with guilt and innocence. It's just a huge bureaucratic exercise in dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Throw a bunch of stuff up against the wall and see what sticks - that's what (defense attorneys) do."

Among the trial's "absurdities," as Byrne calls them: Brewer's claim that Sherry voluntarily got into the car trunk, and his claim, which he later retracted, that he and Sherry were having an affair.

Byrne said he "couldn't even function" for about two years after the murder. He shared his grief with Sherry's best friend, Christine, and their friendship eventually blossomed into romance. Byrne said only Christine could understand what he was going through. They were married 2 1/2 years after the murder, and now have a daughter, Amanda.

"She and I, in the grief process, just talked a lot," Byrne said. "Christine was there, and she was hurting very much also. It's very complex, but we're very happy."