Families of murdered couple release their endorsement

Editor,
When tragedy strikes, no one ever really knows what to do next. We learned that first hand when tragedy struck our family in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 2010, when our loved ones, Debbie Tish and Mike Mahon, were murdered as they slept. The day after, we quickly learned that the person to help us move forward through at least one process, the judicial process, was then-State’s Attorney Stephen Friedel.
From the beginning, when the charges were filed in August 2010, to the conviction in August 2011 and the sentencing in September 2011, Mr. Friedel was very straightforward with us.
He walked us through every step of the way: personally called to ensure we knew about court dates, personally called to let us know about every conference call and everything that was discussed within those calls, and even let members of our family attend if they so wished, and met with us after each and every hearing to answer any questions we may have about what had just transpired or about what was coming up next. Unless he was in court, he immediately made himself available to any member of our family.
The Illinois Appellate Court has since sent the case back to Fayette County for resentencing. Our first hearing was December 2015.
To this day, our family has not heard from or met with current State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison with regards to this case.
On the date of the hearing, the assistant state’s attorney was present in court. After the hearing, all she told us was that Mr. Morrison was in his office doing paperwork and was unavailable, but we were to give our names and phone numbers to the office staff, and they would let us know of any further hearings. We then were told by the office staff that Mr. Morrison wasn’t even in the office that day, and there was absolutely no explanation of what was coming up next in the case.
Since then, there have been numerous conference calls and hearing continuances. One family member is notified by a staff member that the call happened, the date of the next one and what little she knows, since she is not in on the call, and our family member passes the word along to the rest of us.
We simply want to be kept informed of all aspects of the case, not simply just on the dates and times of conference calls.
While we understand that there are numerous cases that demand Mr. Morrison’s attention, we simply just want to know where the case stands before the scheduled hearing on Nov. 10. Would it really take that much time out of his day to meet with us and discuss the status of the case?  
It is our hope that no one ever has to go through what we have since that dreadful day that forever changed the course of all of our lives, but, heaven forbid, if any of you reading this do, we hope you are as fortunate as we were to have a state’s attorney like Mr. Stephen Friedel on your side.
It is our hope that when residents of Fayette County go to vote in November, that they vote to elect Mr. Stephen Friedel as the next state’s attorney. Let’s bring personalization, compassion and determination back to the state’s attorney office.
The family of Debbie Tish & Mike Mahon
Norma Mahon, Stacey Worman, Patty Martin and families