June 2, 2003
Albany-- Fallon Stubbs was just 13-years-old when she watched her mother die in the explosion at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27th, 1996.
44-year-old Alice Hawthorne was killed instantly by a bomb investigators think was planted by Eric Rudolph. Memories of that July night still haunt Fallon, but she thinks Rudolph's capture might bring some of those nightmares to rest.
When Fallon Stubbs first learned Eric Rudolph had been captured, she thought of her mother, "As soon as I found out it was him, I told her, 'Look Mom they got him, it's okay now, you can rest now you can go to sleep.'"
There has not been much rest for 20-year-old Fallon Stubbs, who was just a young girl when she witnessed her mother's murder at Atlanta's Olympic Park. "Before I snapped the picture of her it was boom and it was chaos."
Fallon was hurt by the blast, but tried to get help for her mother, Alice Hawthorne, who was fatally injured, "I looked over my shoulder and got a glance of where she was. There were 10 or 15 people around her and I closed my eyes because I knew then it wasn't good."
Fallon says she missed out not having her mother there for the important things-- like senior prom and graduation. With tears in her eyes, Stubbs says, "I grew up great but I would have had such a better experience in life had I not had to work out those kind of things."
Fallon wants Eric Rudolph to know just what he took away from her-- a loving mother, "There was so much I missed out on had she been there. That's something he can never give me back, or anybody could."
Fallon Stubbs says she forgives Eric Rudolph but will never forgive what he did. While she does not personally wish for him to be given the death penalty, she would not object if a judge and jury sentenced him to death.
Posted at 4:00 p.m. by melissa.kill@walb.com
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