The death of Shannon Madill (Burgess) has left a hole in the hearts of her loved ones that will never fully heal. The anger and hurt surrounding her death came rushing back Monday with the start of the preliminary inquiry for the man accused of killing her—her own husband.
“My heart has a little dark dead area in it that will never recover,” Shannon’s mother Lisa Madill said.
Madill, 25, went missing in November 2014. For seven agonizing months, her family held out hope she’d return safely. But in July 2015 her body was found at the Spiller Road S.E. home she shared with her husband, Joshua Burgess.
“It’s hard when you have so many questions, and it makes absolutely no sense and you can’t heal and move on,” Shannon’s sister Erin Madill said.
Burgess is charged with second-degree murder in the case.
Watch below: Global’s past coverage of the case
Evidence presented during the hearing is protected by a publication ban.
“It’s a long process…that’s probably the thing that people don’t realize is just how long it actually takes,” Erin Madill said.
“It definitely keeps putting you back to exactly Day 1—the emotions become really fresh and with each additional piece of information you find out it’s just another thing you have to come to terms with,” she continued.
Shannon was an artist: an actress, musician, and photographer.
Each of her family members does something special to remember her: memorial tattoos, special rituals, watching her videos. Her mother and sister both carry Shannon’s ashes around their necks in tiny ladybug-shaped urns. They said Shannon loved ladybugs.
“Something will happen—a song on the radio that was special, the colour purple which was her colour,” Shannon’s father David Madill said.
“It is hard,” he said, choking back tears. “I will never be the same that I was before it happened and I’ve sort of reconciled myself with that fact that it’s not like it will ever go back to what it was like before. She was a very, very special person, and I’ll always miss her.”
The preliminary inquiry is expected to wrap up later this week.
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