Johnson said her mother was a caring woman who was always looking out for others. Her main focus was taking care of her husband, who was ill and in a nursing home. She and her husband would have been married 60 years this September. They knew each other since childhood, when their families had adjacent farms near House Springs. They would walk to school together.

Marschel lived in an independent apartment at a senior living residence in Herculaneum, and her husband had recently moved into a nursing home she could see from her window.

On the day she was attacked, Marschel had driven a friend who didn’t drive to another nursing home to visit a relative. Then, Marschel ran some errands — buying socks and other items for her husband — before gassing up at the BP station. She planned to return to pick up her friend.

Johnson said her mother, who stood 5 feet 11, sometimes used a cane but got around well.

“She wasn’t afraid of anyone,” Johnson said. “She was a very tough lady.”