Tracy Lynn Wilemon was rebuilding her life from scratch.Recovering from a divorce and a cross-country move that took her away from her daughter − described by family as “her everything” − Wilemon got a place of her own, a job at a nursing home, and had finally saved enough money for a car. She was thriving.Until one night, out of nowhere, her own cousin and her cousin’s boyfriend, James Osgood, attacked her while she was home in bed. They then carried out what one prosecutor described as a “twisted fantasy” that ended in Wilemon’s murder.Tracy Lynn Wilemon, also known as Tracy Lynn Brown, is pictured.”She didn’t deserve this. No one does,” Trish Jackson, Wilemon’s sister-in-law, told USA TODAY. “She was very loved … She deserved to have the greatest life and flourish.”Now 15 years after her murder, Osgood is set to be executed by lethal injection in Alabama on Thursday.Wilemon’s family plans to be there to witness it, but not for revenge.Who was Tracy Lynn Wilemon?Family members describe 44-year-old Tracy Lynn Wilemon as a fun-loving, spunky, hard-working mother who was thriving in Clanton, Alabama. She was saving money from her job at a nursing home to visit her daughter in Lake Havasu, Arizona.”She was getting on her feet again … She totally restructured her life, started from scratch,” Jackson told USA TODAY. “Working at the nursing home, that’s part of who she was. She cared a lot about taking care of others and helping.”Jackson added: “She was thriving and happy.”Jackson said that she and her stepsister were more like real sisters and spent much of their childhood growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside along with cousin Tonya Vandyke, who would later help Osgood rape and kill Wilemon (whose legal last name was Brown when she was killed but her family prefers her maiden name to be used in print).”We were very close,” Jackson said, adding that the girls would do each other’s hair, dress up, and go horseback-riding and roller-skating. As they became adults and mothers, the women remained close and were always going to the beach and throwing family barbecues, she said.Jackson said that Wilemon had a lot of life left to live, missed the birth of a grandson and a granddaughter, and deserved so much more than the horrific ending she got.”She was very loved,” Jackson said. “She would have made an amazing grandmother.”We’ve got today’s trending stories: Sign up for USA TODAY’s Everyone’s Talking newsletter.Tracy Lynn Wilemon (L) is pictured with her daughter Kristin.What happened to Tracy Lynn Wilemon?On Oct. 13, 2010, James Osgood and his girlfriend Tonya Vandyke attacked Wilemon in her bedroom, he confessed to police.Both Osgood and Vandyke raped Wilemon and forced her to perform sex acts on them, according to Osgood’s confession. Osgood slashed Wilemon’s throat a number of times before stabbing her in the back.”I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and seeing her shaking,” Osgood said during his confession to investigators with the Chilton County Sheriff’s Department. “I know there was a lot of cutting involved but it wasn’t a crime of violence. There was no anger involved. I was scared. She wasn’t dying, so I kept cutting her throat and neck.”James Osgood is pictured in prison.During the horrific last moments of Wilemon’s life, Osgood said he apologized.”I told her I was sorry,” he said. “It was nothing against her. She just needed to quit fighting and go.”During Osgood’s sentencing, the trial judge told him: “I can’t think of a darker set of facts than what you have given us,” according to reporting from the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.Osgood was sentenced to death while Vandyke is serving life in federal prison.Tracy Lynn Wilemon is pictured.Tracy Lynn Wilemon’s family to attend executionJackson and her mother, who was Wilemon’s stepmother, told USA TODAY that they were traveling to Alabama from Southern California to witness Osgood’s execution.”My mom is 83, her health is declining, so it’s important for her to be present just to honor Tracy’s memory and who she was and what she went through,” Jackson said. “Just to know that he will be no more.”Her mother, Jackie Wilemon, said that her husband (and Tracy Wilemon’s father) died four years ago, so going is especially important to her.”I want to tell him I forgive him but I won’t forget and I hope he’s found the Lord,” she said.Jackson said that while Osgood deserves to be executed, the situation has her “feeling sick to my stomach” because of her Christianity.”I struggled with whether I believe in the death penalty or do not but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s God’s will. Proper due process was held and this is all God’s doing,” she said, but added: “I could just cry because this man is experiencing his last days.”Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAYThis article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tracy Wilemon, Alabama mom rebuilding life, killed in ‘twisted fantasy’
