Tributes to Janice Heyne

Jan was a beautiful, loving wife of 27 years, wonderful Mother, and an incredible life force. A cowardly monster armed with a 9mm semi automatic handgun with a 15 round clip, mercilessly shot Jan twice in the back as she was trying to get away. The killer was at the home of my best Friend, Steve Mazin, laying in wait to kill him, and Jan and I were there to see Steve at the time and in the proverbial “wrong place at the wrong time”, and included in the coward’s hateful rage.

I was shot and left for dead, but by the grace of God survived, and our three children still have at least one parent in their life. Steve was shot dead. The killer had a restraining order against him by Steve as Steve knew he was capable of doing exactly what he did. He also had in his possession a .357 Magnum and a .38. Three handguns he had NO business having with a violent restraining order against him! The coward killed another young Mother the following day after stealing a vehicle, pistol whipped her two children almost to death, and then following a police chase, put a bullet into his brain like so many of these cretin monsters do. WE MUST FIGHT HARD TO KEEP DANGEROUS WEAPONS FROM THE HANDS OF DANGEROUS PEOPLE!!!!!

On Memorial Day May 30th, 2005, my parents were returning a boat to my dad’s best friend, Steve. Steve had recently obtained a restraining order against Toby Whelchel, a man who a judge deemed a credible threat of violence. Whelchel was lying in wait for Steve that day, and he walked up to the group and opened fire, shooting Steve and my father multiple times.

My mom, Jan, tried to save Steve’s life rather than run away. Neighbors told me that they heard her beg the killer to stop. His response was to shoot her in the back, killing her. Whelchel fled the scene and the next day killed another mother, wounded her two children, and shot a police officer before taking his own life.

After weeks of recovery in the ICU, my dad overcame his injuries. Once we had a chance to mourn, we learned more information about my mom’s killer. He owned three guns. He was also the subject of a restraining order, had been dishonorably discharged from the military, and had a criminal charge for fighting police officers less than a year before the murders.

I never imagined my family would be affected by gun violence. How could we be? We lived in Thousand Oaks, California, consistently ranked one of the safest cities in America. When the papers wrote of my parents involvement they said that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These vigils stand to show that there is never a right place or right time for gun violence. The fact is that there are far too many victims of gun violence in this country because we allow deadly weapons to get into the hands of deadly individuals and the time has come for us to stand as one and prevent families from going through the pain and suffering we have undergone.

I miss you and love you Mom.