NIU Families Reflect on Shooting-Rampage Deaths
COLLINS: Quickly just want to show you some pictures we are getting in now live to the CNN NEWSROOM here. We see President Barack Obama getting ready to get on board Air Force One there. He is leaving Chicago, so O'Hare airport, heading back home to the White House. He spent the weekend there, as we heard from Suzanne Malveaux. Spent some time with family and celebrated Valentine's Day and so forth with his wife and daughters who have already gotten into the aircraft. So, again, he'll be heading back to the White House and then departing tomorrow right away for Denver as we've been hearing that he's going to go there to sign that stimulus bill. So we will continue to follow his movements, of course, and bring them to you as they happen. President Obama leaving Chicago, heading back to Washington. One year ago, five students were killed in a shooting rampage on the campus of Northern Illinois University. Now, our special investigations unit is returning to the campus and talking with the families still struggling with their losses. Here's Abbie Boudreau.</s>ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): He says he thought he was giving his daughter good advice.</s>ERIC MACE, FATHER OF NIU SHOOTING VICTIM: What I want you to do is I'd like you to sit in the front row of every class that you're in.</s>BOUDREAU: So 19-year-old Ryanne Mace took her father's advice. Now he wishes she hadn't.</s>E. MACE: She was, from what I understand, in the front row of that room. And was probably the first one that had shots fired at her. If I would have said always sit at the back of the room so that you can get out of there and get to your next class fast, it might have saved her life. And it's not an easy thing to carry.</s>MARYKAY (PH) MACE, MOTHER OF NIU SHOOTING VICTIM: Someone keeps tying purple ribbons. Purple was her favorite color.</s>BOUDREAU: This tree was planted in her memory on NIU's campus. (on camera): So she would have been 20.</s>M. MACE: Couple months shy.</s>E. MACE: Missed it by a couple of months.</s>BOUDREAU (voice-over): Ryanne was one of the five NIU students killed that day.</s>E. MACE: We don't have a headstone for her. And that's kind of what this is.</s>BOUDREAU: She was Eric and MaryKay (ph) Mace's only child.</s>M. MACE: It's difficult. There's an ache, a loneliness, and a longing. We're going to miss her every day for the rest of our lives.</s>E. MACE: I go to bed thinking about her, I wake up in the morning thinking about her. Any time that I've got a free moment, it'll pop up.</s>BOUDREAU: Her parents say they would like to know more about the police investigation into the shooting and about Steven Kazmierczak's mental illness and the medication he was taking. They also question why Kazmierczak, who had a lengthy history of health problems going back to his childhood, was legally able to buy guns.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somewhere along the line, the pertinent information didn't get into the right database, and he could waltz out of a store with a legally purchased weapon. And I don't get that.</s>BOUDREAU: He was able to purchase guns in Illinois because more than five years had passed since he was treated voluntarily at this mental health facility.</s>E. MACE: The one thing that's kind of ironic about it is that she always did have sort of a fascination with people who had minds like the person who took her life.</s>BOUDREAU: Ryanne was studying psychology and her parents created a scholarship foundation for psychology majors in honor of their daughter. They say they hope it encourages others to help fix broken minds like that of the man who killed Ryanne. (on camera): Do you want people to remember that day?</s>E. MACE: Absolutely. I don't want them to forget a single detail about it. Because the details aren't going to change just by forgetting about them. I want Ryanne to be remembered. I want Catalina and Gail and Julianna and Dan to be remembered, as well.</s>COLLINS: And if you would like more on this story, you can always get it by going to CNN.com. Our correspondent Abbie Boudreau has actually been blogging about this story. She's been following it ever since it happened. A wildfire racing toward your house, should you stay and defend it? A shocking death toll in Australia is raising new questions now in California.