Remembering Jill Behrman

We had a difficult decision to make Tuesday night.\nEarlier in the day, reporters covering the trial of John R. Myers II snapped pictures of photos of the skeletal remains of Jill Behrman, the IU sophomore Myers is accused of brutally murdering in May 2000.\nThe photos, which included pictures of Jill Behrman's skull with a hole from a gunshot and a her full skeleton laid out in the shape of her body, were presented to jurors in open court, so they were a matter of public record. \nThe dilemma, however, was one of taste. \nThese photographs showed the remains of a member of the IU community who was violently killed -- a student who took classes and walked across campus. Jill Behrman is just like each one of us. Her parents both work for IU and are themselves established and well-known community members.\nBut the problem is that most of our readers don't know Jill Behrman. Even fifth-year seniors were still in high school when she disappeared. When I wrote a story in April after a grand jury indicted Myers, I was shocked at how many students had never heard of Jill Behrman -- the student for whom Saturday's Run for the End Zone and the recently approved Jill's House are named.\nAnd that is why we chose, after a lengthy and heated discussion among many editors, writers and photographers, to run the gruesome photo. \nWe chose to run a photo of several pictures of the evidence. This image was significantly less explicit than other photos we considered. In the end, the photo that ran balanced the need to illustrate the violence of Jill Behrman's death with the sensitivity that she is loved by many in the community. \nStudents need to know about Jill Behrman. That is why we committed nine reporters and editors, working on alternating schedules, to cover every witness and every motion of the trial in Martinsville. That is why the Indiana Daily Student is a sponsor of Saturday's Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone. Jill is still a huge part of the community.\nWe have fielded a handful of calls and e-mail from members of the community upset by the disturbing images we printed above the fold and in color on the front page Wednesday. \nWe are sorry to our readers who have been following the case and Jill Behrman's life and were jarred by the images. If all of the community understood Jill Behrman like that, we would never have run the photos because they never would have been necessary. \nBut we made the decision to run the photos in hopes that students who had never heard of the disappearance, didn't know about the Run for the End Zone and didn't care about the trial would be jolted just enough out of their daily routines to learn a little about Jill Behrman.\nAfter all, in April, her mother, Marilyn Behrman, told me she wanted everyone to remember that "this is actually about a girl named Jill who went for a bike ride and never came home"