Mom of Murdered Boys Talks for 1st Time

Leroy - “It feels like I'm in a nightmare and I wish I could wake up’” says Amy Leichtenberg

She carries a pain that no mother should ever have to bear. Two weeks after burying her sons, nine-year-old Duncan and seven-year-old Jack, she is finally able to talk publicly about her struggle to keep living without them.

“I try to be strong as much as I can for them cause I know hey wouldn’t want to see me upset. I can hear jack now, please don’t cry mom.”

Craig Wall talked to Amy at a park in Bloomington where she played as a kid and. The park was the scene of a parade Friday morning to mark child abuse prevention month. Leichtenberg handed out blue and green ribbons, her sons’ favorite colors. She came because organizers wanted to honor jack and Duncan’s memory.

Ribbons adorn the trees outside Amy's home in Leroy. Since the boys’ murder last months at the hands of their father, Amy’s ex-husband Michael Connolly, she has only been able to go in the house once to get the boys’ clothes for their funeral.

“My world is empty now,” explains Leichtenberg. “They’re not here, they’re never gonna come home, they’re never gonna walk in that door.”

In their rooms, pictures are a haunting reminder of two young lives brutally taken by a man Amy can’t even talk about.

“He’s the devil, I don’t refer to him by his name, and he’s the devil.”

One place Amy does spend a lot of time is the cemetery where Duncan and Jack are buried. She goes there at least once a day.

“Jacks birthday was last Friday; I brought him balloons. That was very hard.”

What’s even tougher is thinking about how the boys died. One was stabbed the other apparently drugged.

“I wonder what they were thinking. I wonder if they knew. I wonder if they were looking for me. That’s what goes through my mind. And I couldn’t be there to protect them,” ponders Leichtenberg.

But as difficult as each day is, Amy knows giving up is not an option.

“With the help of friends I’m trying to fight for them. Trying to get some laws in place so this won’t ever happen to any other kids again.”