WICHITA, Kansas – A woman is dealing with her pain in a remarkable way. The woman, whose father was gunned down at close range, has not only forgiven the killer, but now calls him a friend. It’s a message of hope that she came to Wichita to share.
"When my dad was killed, that was all that mattered,” said Margot Van Sluytman. “We didn't have my dad."
She was just 16 at the time when her father, Theodore Van Sluytman, was murdered during a robbery at the store where he worked.
"Right point blank, like right up close, he shot my father,” Margot said.
That man went to prison while Margot poured her pain into writing poems that, once published, inspired the killer to contact her by e-mail almost 30 years later.
"Every day I pray that somehow you and your family have somehow been able to move on from the despicable thing I did,” Margot reads from Glen Flett’s letter. "I would like you to know that I have put my whole heart into being a different man than I was."
Flett, now out of prison, eventually met Margot face-to-face, despite the concern of her mother and siblings. But Margot was convinced he deserved a second chance and even agreed to talk about their strange friendship at a women’s prison.
"I knew when Glen and I stood up and spoke with those women, some murderers, they would see the possibility for healing,” she said.
It’s what she calls ‘restorative justice’ – helping both victim and criminal move on. It’s a message of mercy she spreads wherever she goes, fulfilling a pledge she made to her father long ago.
"The last thing I said to my dad before the lid was closed, I said, ‘I promise you your death will not be for nothing,’ I didn't know what that meant at the time, but I believe it means this,” she said.
Margot and Glen continue to keep in touch and have made several public appearances together.
For more on their story and her writings, click on Newslinks on the left side of the home page.
