Brick by brick, Carmen and Ricky Gayheart watched as their dream home took shape on a 5-acre piece of heaven in northern Florida.
They chose the tiny town of Fort White to raise their family and escape the crime in South Florida. The high school sweethearts spent two years living in a trailer on the wooded property as they worked on the house and finally moved in with their 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.
Once the home was finished, the young couple hung a sign outside: "Welcome to the Gayheart Corral."
Then on April 27, 1994, the stuff of nightmares befell the Gayhearts. Carmen, who was just 23, was raped and murdered after two North Carolina prison escapees kidnapped her while she was on a grocery store run in the middle of the day and fled.
Carmen's family was among dozens who searched for any sign of her for five days before sheriff's deputies found her brutalized body off a remote dirt road.
