Lore Heavlin

Erin loved the animals, horses, cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, but they all loved her too. She was like a calming force, and they knew they could trust her, and they knew that she was the one to respect and listen to.

Erin was an animal whisperer. She could get them to do things that the average person would not be able to.

When she first started, I assured her we would never get a horse, and we ended up with two. We spent many, many, many, many hours here.

John's younger sister had a horse there also. And Aaron went to their house a couple different times.

Erin was 19 years old, almost 20. I was going to go out for her 20th birthday.

And then once she turned, I think she was 15, and they kind of reconnected and, you know, did a lot of texting and messaging on Facebook and that kind of stuff. And they started dating on her 16th birthday. And John actually asked me if it was okay if he took her out on a date.

When they first started dating, he already knew he was going to be a Marine.

We knew how you young and naive she was, and we had hoped that they would wait a couple years so that she could get a little bit of more maturity under her belt.

The reason why they wanted to get married was to get on the base housing list. And you had to be married, and they knew John was getting ready to be deployed.

We had quite a few conversations on what life as a military wife would be. I tried my hardest to prepare her mentally, emotionally for what was in her future.

She went to Las Vegas for the Marine Ball, and they got married while they were in Vegas.

And he told me that she had gone out to Joshua Tree National Park the day before to look for places for her and I to go to take pictures and stuff when I came to visit in a few days. My first immediate thought was Erin got lost. Erin is very directionally challenged.

And she moved out there, got their apartment all set up before John got home from his deployment.

I think Erin was enjoying some aspects of being a Marine wife, and other aspects I think it was harder than what she anticipated.

John was not deployed again after she moved out there, but being in artillery, he went out in the field every month for at least five days, sometimes more. And so she would be home alone during those times that he was out in the field.

She was a very petite 19-year-old, 5'2", maybe 15. 115 pounds. She was very shy, extremely naive.

We really had no clue what happened. It was almost like we were walking in a different world. Kind of numb.

She was so trusting and always saw the good in people that she did not see the warning signs that I'm sure were there.

I mean, she just was not a risk taker.

He sounded concerned. There wasn't a lot of emotion in his voice, but that's typical John. It's hard to read him, to know what his thoughts are.

Our whole life being turned totally upside down began on June 29th, 2014.

My son-in-law called probably around 11 o'clock, 1130 on Sunday morning and said, told us that Aaron was missing. And I'm like, what do you mean Aaron's missing?

She was an incredible sweet baby. We were blessed to be chosen to be her parents.