Shelby's kin grateful for headstone donations

WEST JORDAN — Shelby Andrews would have turned 12 today, and her mother has decorated her grave with a birthday banner, balloons and stuffed animals.

"We figure even though she gets older every year, she'll still be just a little girl," Kimberly Hale said, wiping away tears from underneath her sunglasses.

As she hugged her husband, Guy, they looked down at a brand-new headstone marking Shelby's final resting place. On the slain girl's birthday, the Hales want to say one thing to the people whose generous donations paid for the headstone: "Thank you."

"We'll never be able to thank these people enough for their love and support," Kimberly said.

It's hard for Guy Hale to visit Shelby's grave.

"I hate having to come visit her here," he says after each visit to the cemetery.

Ten-year-old Shelby Andrews was slain in a horrific case of child abuse in August 2006. Her father, Ryan Andrews, is now in prison for murder. Her stepmother, Angela Ray Andrews, recently pleaded guilty to murder and sex abuse charges and is due to be sentenced next month.

Shelby's murder was painful enough. But it was even more difficult when the family would visit her grave, where a tiny brass plaque marked Shelby's final resting place. Weathered and faded, the name Shelby Laice Andrews was barely legible. Her family couldn't afford to buy a proper headstone.

"To us, $2,000 at that time, it was out of sight for us," said Shelby's grandfather, Dale Larabee.

The family went broke trying to deal with the aftermath of the girl's slaying. Funeral expenses were taken care of by donations. After a story about their plight appeared in the Deseret Morning News in July, readers from all over the country donated money to purchase the headstone.

"It sure renews your faith in people," Larabee said.

Kimberly Hale said she didn't know her daughter was being abused. Ryan Andrews had sole custody, and her visits with their children became less frequent over time.

"We kind of suspected something was going on, but not anything to this extreme," she said. "When the kids would come to visit, it would take them literally a half a day to open up and talk to us about normal stuff like, 'How's school? How's life?'"

Shelby lived with her father and his wife inside their Syracuse home. Police said the little girl had been beaten for weeks. Angela Andrews is accused of forcing Shelby to eat her own feces, sexually abusing her, and even slamming the girl's head into some stairs.