Trineisha Dené Colomb
April 9, 1979 - November 24, 2002
Sterling and Verna Colomb already had one child of their own — a son, Sterling, Jr. — when they discovered that they could not have any more children. Yet they still yearned for a daughter to complete their family. The little girl they adopted to fulfill that dream was Treneisha Dené. The family called her by her middle name, Dené.
As a toddler, she had a square, somewhat pudgy face that only barely hinted at the beautiful young woman she was to become. 
She was inquisitive and early on discovered an abiding joy in reading books, especially stories about faraway places. She had a sensitive nature, seeming to understand how friends and family members were feeling almost the way a butterfly's fragile wings can react to every puff of air. When she was joking or amused, a mischievous smile would spread across her elfin face.
She seemed to grow a little more reserved, almost shy, when she entered high school. She often preferred to spend time alone reading or listening to music. She devoured travel books by the yard. She could tell you about Arabia, Mongolia, or the Australian outback. She knew the customs of people in Madagascar, Nepal, or the island of Tonga. Her intelligence and imagination created an inner world filled with such a hubbub of foreign languages and exciting places that she seldom needed outside distraction the way other teenagers did.
Even so, Dené never liked too much repetition, so she tended to use up hobbies and activities quickly and move on to something new. She spent a year on the basketball team, then switched to the volleyball team. After that, she became a cheerleader.
She taught herself four languages with the firm intent of traveling the world when she left home. She joined the Army right out of high school, but to her keen disappointment drew a two year tour of duty that never once took her outside of the United States. Back from the military, she attended college for two years. During this time, Dené's mother discovered that she had breast cancer and that it was already in an advanced stage. Dené took the news hard. She had always been very close to her mother and she found it very difficult to watch her mother's steady decline. She studied everything about the disease, feeling that more knowledge might help her cope.
Dené's twenty-third birthday was a sad one. Her mother was close to death. Just a little over two weeks later Verna Colomb slipped away and Dené's grieving began in earnest. Dené had always known that she was adopted. She even knew the name of her birth mother, though not who her father might be. When her adopted mother died, Dené was overwhelmed by a flood of grief, some ancient and much brand new. The current loss reopened every loss.
It was partly in reaction to her mother's death that Dené decided some months later to change course in her life. She signed up with the U.S. Marine Corps and was scheduled to report for basic training in the Spring of 2003. She told her father and brother that she wanted to serve her country in a more meaningful way, to go places, and be a part of accomplishing something. That was true, but she also hoped to escape the sadness she was feeling.
Dené visited her mother's grave frequently to pray and to bring fresh flowers. On Thanksgiving Day, 2002, Dené decided to go to her mother's grave site, a beautiful spot near Grand Couteaux, distant from any disturbance or traffic. She was followed, and it was there that the south Louisiana serial killer attacked her. Dené put up a monumental struggle that ranged across several hundred yards before she was abducted. Dené's loss proved crucial in the hunt for the serial killer as her death forced police to realize that the FBI's profile of a white male suspect might be completely wrong, a realization which eventually led to the arrest of the perpetrator and the end of his evil.
