Phil Dawson Matt Campbell
Updated:7/17/2010 12:00:38 AM - Posted: 7/16/2010 11:32:00 PM Comments (6) Recommend
MUSKEGON, MI (WZZM) - The mother of a teenager killed by mass murderer Seth Privacky says she gets no pleasure from knowing the killer is now also dead.
"Actually, my first response was I hoped in the end he did accept God," says Julie Bilka.
Her daughter, April Boss, 19, was the fifth person Privacky murdered on November 29, 1998, at his family's home in Muskegon.
He had already shot and killed his father Stephen, mother Linda, grandfather John and older brother Jedediah.
April was Jedediah's girlfriend and showed up at the Privacky house on Riley-Thompson Road to visit.
"He said he didn't know April was coming," recalls Bilka. "He said he didn't want to kill April. He tried to make her go away and she wouldn't."
On Thursday, Privacky was shot and killed by a corrections officer when he and two other inmates tried to escape from the Kinross Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula.
Bilka says she is more sad than glad to hear the news.
"It's been 12 years and I forgave Seth a long time ago," she says. "He was paying the price society expected of him and I'm not God. He owes me nothing. It was already over for me."
Bilka discovered the murder scene in Muskegon 12 years ago when she went to find out why April didn't show up at work.
"She never missed work for anything, ever," Bilka says.
When she arrived at the Privacky home she discovered the body of Stephen Privacky, 49, in the driveway.
Even before police arrived and located the other victims, Bilka says she knew April was dead.
"I screamed her name as loud as I could thinking she ran and was hiding," she says. "It was a mother's last ditch hope that nothing had happened because I knew that it had."
Julie Bilka says Privacky died without ever really explaining why. What was he thinking when he murdered all of those people?
"I wish I knew was was on his heart that caused him to do that, I really do."
She says she knows he was a troubled boy who sometimes felt left out and unloved, but so do a lot of teenagers.
Through all of the court appearances and confessions she says he never opened up.
"I'm sure he felt there was a reason but he just never shared that."
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