Bowling Green: Family says killer should stay put

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Bowling Green Daily News

By Hayli Fellwock, [e-mail] -- 270-783-3240

Friday, November 26, 2004

In a small mobile home on Ky. 185 in rural Warren County in 1978, two days before Christmas, Diane Marcum was strangled to death at age 25.

The next day, on Christmas Eve, her 3-year-old son, Anthony, was drowned in the kitchen sink. Their bodies were burned and tossed in a nearby river, then discovered by duck hunters a couple of weeks later.

Sherill Dewayne Harston, Marcum’s boyfriend, was charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter in the case and has since talked openly about their deaths. He was sentenced to 124 years in a federal penitentiary. He is in the Green River Correctional Institute near Central City.

In January, Harston will have his fourth opportunity to be considered for parole and the family of the victims are trying to ensure he never sees freedom.

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The family is encouraging people to e-mail [e-mail] with the subject “No parole for Sherill Harston, inmate #124271/032509.”

Alternatively, petitioners may write the Kentucky Parole Board at P.O. Box 2400, Frankfort, KY 40604.

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James Minor, 32, of Allen County was 5 when his mother died. He was with his grandparents, James and Thelma McGuire, the evening of her death.

“By the grace of God, he was with my parents,” Lowe said. “The last time we saw Diane was on Christmas Eve and he didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay with us, so he did. If he hadn’t stayed with us, I’m sure he wouldn’t be here either.”

Minor said he recalls being scared of Harston.

“The only memory I have of him is him shooting at me and my little brother with a BB gun,” he said. “I can’t see how they’d let him out and take a chance on this happening to another family and none of us are going to feel safe. I’m not going to feel safe with my kids.

“The last time he come up for parole, he wrote my grandmother a letter saying she couldn’t receive forgiveness if she didn’t forgive him and let him out. But this kind of steps over the line of forgivable sins.”

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“I guess I still wonder if this hadn’t happened, if me and my mom would have had any kind of relationship,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

“I know me and my little brother would have because we were close.

more:http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/stories/public/200411/26/0eD4_news.html

related link: http://www.florastuart.com/harston_link.htm