SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Katelin Prokop's memories of her mom play in her head like a slideshow.
"We were really close. We were always together. I don't ever remember being apart from her," Katelin said.
They're like still images, including memories from the night her mom was killed.
"There's memory of them being there, trying to face away from me. Then there's memory of her not being in the bed," Katelin said.
Katelin was 4 years old, living with her 23-year-old mother Cheryl Prokop, known as Cherie, on Saint Paul's west side.
On Dec. 2, 1988, someone came into the bedroom where they both were sleeping, took Cherie out of the room, and then beat and strangled her to death. Katelin waited for it to be quiet enough to safely get out of the bed. Then, she found her mom.
"I remember her laying there. And I remember blood coming out of her mouth so I took a washcloth and I cleaned that," Kaitlin said. "I remember getting dressed and knocking on doors until I found someone who was awake and who would answer."
A 1991 KARE 11 report demonstrated the police theory of the crime: When police arrived, a basement window was broken out as though someone had entered through the laundry room — someone unknown to the victim. But, they later came to believe that all this was done to make it appear as if the assailant was a stranger.
Staging a break-in, police thought, as the killer and an accomplice then actually went through the front door. Police thought they knew who.
"With method, motive and opportunity, the shadow falls on one person," said the late Lt. Bill Gillespie, St. Paul Police homicide detective, in 1991.
But police didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest.
"I know that it's somebody that knew her," Katelin said.
It was too risky, police thought back then, to ask young Katelin to testify.
"A 4- or 5- or 6-year-old child on the stand, it wouldn't take a very accomplished trial lawyer to raise an element of doubt in front of a jury," Gillespie said.
Now at age 39, Katelin hopes for a chance to testify and help put her mom's killers away.
"I definitely would. I don't think there's anything I would want more than to help do that for her. And for my family," she said.
Katelin's family life, after Cherie was killed, completely changed. Katelin's aunts became her sisters. Her grandma and grandpa became her parents. Dick and Joan Prokop are still living, nearing 80 years old. And Katelin says they deserve some kind of peace before they're gone.
"They've definitely been the backbone of our family. They're the main reason that I want this so much," she said.
And what does she mean by "this?"
"Justice," Kaitlin said. "To know who did it and to know why."
The reward is being offered to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Prokop. If you know something, contact the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) at 877-996-6222, contact the agency via email or through its "See it Say it Send it" tip app.
Tipsters can remain anonymous.
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