Diane Ketusky sobbed Friday in Schuylkill County Court as she remembered her husband with love and the Mahanoy City woman who helped cover up his suicide with bitterness.
"It's just been a nightmare for us," Ketusky, Barnesville, said during the 30-minute hearing for Tammy M. Casserly, 39, who was sentenced to eight to 23 months in prison for taking the gun from the scene of the February 2010 suicide of Mark Ketusky, 52, and then lying to police about it.
Diane Ketusky still wears her husband's wedding ring on a necklace, and she could not contain her grief over what happened to him and what former friend Casserly did.
"At first, we thought he was murdered. (He was) a great dad, a great person," she said. "It breaks my heart. I never thought she would do this to me. It makes the pain harder."
President Judge William E. Baldwin also found it difficult to believe, and he criticized Casserly, who pleaded guilty on March 30 to tampering with evidence and false reports to law enforcement.
"This was more than usual tampering," he said. "It was enormously painful for the family. The state police wasted enormous resources."
State police at Frackville said that when Casserly found Mark Ketusky's body on Feb. 22 or 23, 2010, at the Mahanoy City Little League Complex, she removed the revolver with which he had shot himself in the head.
Police also said Casserly lied to them by denying she had any knowledge about how Ketusky died.
The shooting originally was classified and investigated as a homicide before Casserly admitted not only that she had taken the gun but had had conversations with Mark Ketusky about his intention to commit suicide and stage the scene to make it look like he was the victim of a robbery.
State police Cpl. James S. Cuttitta testified that the investigation could have been concluded the day after the body was found if Casserly had been truthful.
"I don't know," was Casserly's answer when Baldwin asked her why she did not warn Mark Ketusky's family about his plan.
The Ketusky daughters, Amanda, 19, and Diana, 16, remain as sorrowful and baffled as their mother is about what occurred.
"This is the hardest experience of my life. This has changed my life forever," Diana Ketusky testified through her tears. "My heart every day is like it's broken in two."
She said the hardest part was attending her father's funeral - on her birthday.
Amanda Ketusky testified no one should do what Casserly did.
"I was so crushed. I would tell someone," she said. "You don't do that."
Casserly said she thought she was doing the family a favor concerning possible insurance repercussions.
After the hearing ended, Assistant Public Defender Kent D. Watkins, Casserly's lawyer, declined to comment on any aspect of the case. District Attorney Karen Noon, who had argued for a state prison sentence, was not unhappy, even though Casserly will serve her time in the county prison.
"We are satisfied with the court's sentence," she said.
Diane Ketusky thanked law enforcement, especially Cuttitta and Noon, the court system, friends and family for helping her and her daughters get through the case.
"I just feel like what she did, the sentencing will never be enough for us, but at least it's a start for us to have some peace," she said. "We will try to move on now. It's been a long time coming for us."Defendant: Tammy Casserly
Age; 39
Residence: Mahanoy City
Crimes committed: Tampering with evidence and false reports to law enforcement
Prison sentence: Eight to 23 months