Legacy MattersSister Karen Klimczak was known a "fierce and tireless" nun who worked with both criminals and victims of crime and ran a halfway house in Buffalo, N.Y.
On Good Friday, she was strangled in her room at the halfway house by Craig Lynch, high on crack cocaine and looking to steal her cell phone to buy more. He had been released from prison just nine days earlier.
Lynch first hid her body behind his mother's garage, then, on Easter Sunday, moved her body to a shallow grave across the street in a vacant lot.
The next day he confessed to the police. He was convicted of the murder in December.
On Wednesday, at the sentencing hearing, her real life sister and fellow nun read from Sister Karen's diary, a letter of forgiveness, written 16 years earlier!
Apparently Sister Karen predicted her murder 16 years ago and forgave her killer.
FROM SISTER KAREN’S JOURNAL: “I forgive you for what you have done and I will always watch over you.”
The prosecutor said before asking for the maximum sentence of 25 years to life which the judge imposed.
“There’s been talk of forgiveness, but, judge, forgiveness is for God. Sentencing is for court.”