Police confirm the body of a Providence woman killed in her apartment was there for days until her family found her. Autopsy results came out Monday.
That's also when that woman's family spoke exclusively to ABC6.
Candles burned brightly in Donna Oliver's son's apartment. It's part of a memorial the family set up. The 54 year old was found by her own sons strangled in a closet this weekend.
Larry Rucker remembers Donna's vibrant personality and contagious smile. Pictures are all he has left of the thirteen years they spent together.
"It hurts. It hurts," said Rucker, "That was my kids' mother, and my kids have to go through this in life and you can't wish this upon anyone."
Rucker said Donna always put her kids first, so it's especially difficult knowing they're the ones who found her brutally murdered. They were checking on their mom because they hadn't heard from her in a week. Police said her body had been sitting in the closet of her apartment for days.
"You go to the house and you find your mother a day before Mother's Day. It's devastating. What can you do?," said Rucker.
All the family can do now is mourn their loss and hope police catch the person who killed the mother of three. The family admitted Donna had a checkered past and struggled with drugs, but they said she'd never hurt anyone, so they can't imagine why someone would do this to her.
"Whoever did it is not right in their head," said Rucker, "I don't know. I can't imagine who did it or why. It was the devil as far as I'm concerned, because it just doesn't make any sense at all."
