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Family speaks on father’s life, murder: ‘He just met the wrong person’

Posted at 6:16 PM, Jul 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-22 18:17:40-04

BRIDGETON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The Newaygo County Sheriff's Department says Katie Larson stabbed 30-year-old Steven Woodrum to death on Wednesday. The 26-year-old woman from Grant has been charged with first-degree murder.

"He just met the wrong person. He just met the wrong person. They had barely been seeing each other for less than three weeks, and she didn't like they weren't going to be together," Nikisha Veltman, Woodrum's cousin, told FOX 17.

"He's gone. He's not coming back. She took him from us," she said.

Veltman said, "He just wanted everyone to be happy. If you were feeling bad about yourself he would find a way to make you... (he'd say) 'Don't worry about. It's alright. You are who you are. It is what it is, and you're fine.' He was really good about making you comfortable."

Described as a hard worker and a loving father, Woodrum has been taken from his daughter Bailey's life.

"She's his whole life. Everything," Veltman described.

"He loves teaching her things. Videos ... they would take videos of him teaching her. Ya know, the sounds that a cow makes. Just everything you could teach your daughter," she explained.

At just 2 years old, Bailey will now only know her father through pictures and video. It's devastated his entire family.

Veltman asked, "Who can do that? Who just takes somebody away like that?"

The toddler's family is rallying together to support her and each other through this trying time as they seek justice.

"Getting closure and making sure he's at peace. (Making sure) the right things happen because he's gone, and he's not coming back," Veltman said.

The family set up this GoFundMe for funeral expenses and his daughter's needs for anyone interested in helping them out.