- She
paid her way through flight school to become a Commercial Airline Pilot. She was
one of the first women in Mexico to be licensed to fly passenger jets.
- She was well-known in the Fairfield, Iowa Latino community.
- She taught Spanish at Fairfield High School since 2012.
- In her nine years with Fairfield High School, Mrs. Graber touched the lives of many students, parents and staff.
- She was active in St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fairfield, eventually attending mass daily, and became a liaison between the church and what was then a small but growing Latino population.
- She was a very kind, compassionate, faith-filled woman who treasured every moment of her day.
- As their children grew older, she decided, in her 50s, to get a degree in English and a teaching certificate from Iowa Wesleyan University in nearby Mount Pleasant.
- She quickly became a fixture at Fairfield High School, loved by many students. She often received cards and letters from former students.
- She was a community leader, teacher and friend.
- She was an absolute angel.
- She was an exceptional person.
- She was a lovely person.
- She was a loving mother of three.
- Graber was bashed to death with a baseball bat.
- She died at 66 years of age.
Prosecutors have filed documents saying two high school students allegedly murdered Nohema Graber possibly because they were upset about their grades.
Investigations into her death led to Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, both then aged 16, being charged with two homicide felonies.
Investigators found that Miller met with Graber at Fairfield High School on the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2021, to discuss his poor grade in her class. Graber later drove her van to a park where she was known to take daily walks after school, authorities say. Witnesses saw her van leaving the park less than an hour later with two males in the front seat.
The van was later left at the end of a rural road. After getting a phone call from Goodale, a friend and witness later picked up Goodale and Miller as they walked to town on that road.
************
A Defense Attorney for Miller is asking the court to:
- Invalidate four search warrants.
- Suppress evidence from Miller’s home.
- Suppress comments he made to police.
- Suppress information taken from his cell phone.
- Suppress information obtained from the social media platform Snapchat.
It looks like the judge is being asked to prevent the prosecution from using any evidence the police investigation uncovered.
The Prosecution Attorney
near the point of exhaustion is begging the Judge to please tell him what evidence
is he allowed to use. The judge replies, “You are free to use the testimony
from Hugo Sonofa, who the court knows to be a congenital liar, who was sleeping
off a drug induced daze in a nearby tree at the time that he says he saw the
accused hit the about to be deceased victim in the head with a baseball bat
making her actually deceased. The judge said the court will throw out Mr.
Sonofa’s testimony because he is well known to be a congenital liar and he was
coming out of a drug induced daze at the time that he saw what he says he saw”.
OK, I admit I made
up what the Judge told the Prosecution Attorney...Or did I?
There is no funny punch
line to this one.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe: But Graber's adult children, who adored her, have already
forgiven her killers. Her son, Christian Graber, posted a Facebook message saying he did so
because there was no point in being angry. “My mother was an angel of a woman
and was one of the kindest souls,” he wrote. Her daughter, Nohema Marie
Graber, echoed the sentiment, writing on Facebook, "To the two
teenagers that so cruelly took her life, it is clear that they need more love
and light in their hearts. But I agree with my oldest brother Christian, all we
can do is forgive.”
