Mother speaks out as son’s murderer is set to finish prison sentence this week
By Peyton Headlee
Click here for updates on this story
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — A Kansas City mother is speaking out, as her son’s killer is set to finish the prison sentence for his death next week.
Twenty-two-year-old Corey Laykovich was stabbed to death in July 2013 when walking home from a QuikTrip in Independence. John Seger pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Laykovich’s death in 2016.
Seger will finish his sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections on July 19. However, he will serve another five-year sentence in federal prison for a different crime.
Michelle Norris, Laykovich’s mother, said she would have liked to see Seger serve a longer sentence.
“He’ll do five years for murdering my son and putting an entire family, all these people through the grief and the fear,” Norris said. “I would have liked to have seen him stay in there for life.”
She said her son’s murder changed their entire family.
“There wasn’t one of us that survived Corey’s murder and people don’t understand it’s not just the person who died physically. It’s everyone in that family who dies. Because part of your heart is just torn out,” Norris said.
Norris said she would give anything to hear her son’s laugh again.
“It’s too much to say,” Norris said. “I miss his laugh. He had this really earthy throaty laugh. I miss his hugs. He had this way of hugging you that it would hurt when he quit.”
She turned to advocacy after her son’s death and created Corey’s Network. The nonprofit advocates for families of homicide victims across Kansas City.
“We’ve helped pay for almost 400 funerals at this point for homicide victims and it’s been going for over eight years now,” Norris said.
On July 31, Corey’s Network will hold its ninth vigil for victims of unsolved homicides – featuring 678 cases since 1970.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
