DALTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — One month has passed since Muskegon County mother Rebekah 'Becky' Bletsch was shot in the head and killed while out jogging less than a mile from her home in rural Dalton Township on June 29.
As of Tuesday, July 29, the task force investigating the case has yet to make any arrests. That reality has left her family reeling.
Both of Bletsch's sisters, Jessica Josephson and Nicole Winberg, want to make sure no one forgets about their sister's unsolved murder as they try to make sense of an apparently senseless crime.
“We have days that are just miserable, and you have days where you know you just have to go on," Nicole Winberg said as her sister Jessica sat beside her Tuesday evening. "That’s the hardest part, is trying to go on with your life when you know they (Becky) don’t have that opportunity,"
For Winberg and her family, each day since Becky's death has been a painfully agonizing reminder they still don't know why she was killed or who committed the crime.
“We’ve lost a mom, an aunt, a sister, a friend," she said. "We’ve lost a piece of our heart and we really don’t know. How do you move on from that?”
While the family struggles to answer that question, fielding other mundane daily questions like 'How are you doing?' have become nearly impossible to answer.
“It’s the worst question I’ve heard, and I hear it every day, and I have to answer it. And you don’t want to lie, but you don’t want to make people feel awful for asking," Winberg said. "But I know I’m miserable inside, and I know my sister is, I know our family is, and that’s hard to deal with.”
In the past month, FOX 17 has followed Bletsch's sisters in their search for justice for Becky. They put up fliers anywhere and everywhere they could in the Muskegon County area.
The family is also offering a $10,000 reward for any information that could lead to an arrest.
But with no arrests and no new breaks in the case, the sisters instead focus on cherishing the memories of Becky they'll always have.
“Our sister was—gosh, she was amazing, and as much as we’ve had disagreements and arguments, it was that sisterly love."
Both of the sisters now wear a reminder of Becky around their necks everyday. "It’s the infinity sign," Josephson said. "I’ll love it forever. I carry her ashes in it. I’ll always have a piece of her.”
Above all, the sisters say that keeping their faith in the hope Becky's killer will be eventually brought to justice is their only option.
“If you’re not optimistic what are you? I don’t know any other way to look at it," Winberg said. "It’s my sister, and I want justice for her. And I want us and the family to be able to at some point move on in peace, and if you’re not optimistic about that then you’re miserable."
"I don’t know any other way you could live.”
Anyone with any information pertaining to the investigation is asked to call Silent Observer’s tip line at 231- 72-CRIME.
