KYLE JORREY/Acorn Newspapers PAIN PERSISTS—Susan Sutcliffe's son Greg, 22, arm in arm with his girlfriend Alex Collette, gazes at the bench, created in memory of his late mother, that now sits outside Tire Pros in Simi Valley. Susan was shot and killed last October while she sat reading and waiting to get a tire fixed. Police have never determined a motive. On Oct. 12, friends and family of the late Susan Sutcliffe gathered at the place where she was murdered a year earlier, determined to make the lasting memory of the site not the suicidal killer's rampage but the mother of two whose life was taken there.

Outside Tire Pros at 4386 E. Los Angeles Ave., a group of about 30 people solemnly dedicated a stone-crafted park bench with a small bronze plaque that reads simply, "Forever in our hearts. Susan Murphy Sutcliffe."

It is a fitting tribute, said husband, Michael Sutcliffe, to a woman who for two decades quietly and without looking for praise provided the foundation for a family of four.

"What an honor this is," Michael told the audience, speaking softly into a microphone. "Susan would be overwhelmed and probably embarrassed over this attention."

Susan was shot and killed by Simi Valley resident Robert Becerra on Oct. 9, 2007, as she sat doing the thing she loved most—reading—while waiting to get a tire fixed on the family's van. She would have been 54 this month. Police never determined a motive for the crime.

The audience outside Tire Pros on Oct. 12 consisted primarily of friends from daughter Kathryn's softball team, which contributed half of the money for the memorial bench, the other half coming from Tire Pros.

After her father said a few words about the struggle of the past year, Kathryn, 17, took the microphone to read a poem she'd written after her mother died.

"What do you do when you lose the person who you told all your secrets to?" Kathryn began.

"My mom showed me the purpose of making the most of every second of every day," she went on. "Make sure the people you love know that."

Johnny Heeber, owner of Tire Pros, nearly met the same fate as Susan.

Heeber was shot through both arms by Becerra just before the killer turned the gun on himself.

Since that day, he said, things have not been the same at the tire shop.

"It took months just to get people to function—it was always on everyone's minds when they came through those doors," said Heeber, standing outside the business he's owned for two years. "It still hasn't gotten back to normal."

Still in therapy to help restore full range of motion capability to his arms, Heeber credited the power of prayer and the support of family and staff for helping to keep the business open after such a horrific incident. Another employee, Albert Ramirez of Moorpark, also survived after being shot in the attack.

"The victims will always be connected; there is a closeness that's been created through this tragedy. We're here for each other," Heeber said.

But the fact that police have never come up with a motive for the shooting continues to haunt the victims a year later—especially Michael Sutcliffe.

"I still can't convince myself that this man would just wake up one morning and decide to go and kill someone without any reason," he said. "There has to be a reason he showed up at this tire store. . . . I know there's an answer out there. Somebody knows something."

Greg, the Sutcliffes' son, shares his father's frustration.

"People do not kill each other without a reason. After a while, there's a reason behind everything," said Greg, 22. "We've gotten no real answer as to why it happened. . . . My mom was murdered, and all we have is wrong place at the wrong time. That makes it tough."

Greg said he returned to Tire Pros a few months after the incident to fix the tire his mother was never able to. He said he's made it a point to use his mother's memory as inspiration, not as an excuse to sabotage his own future.

"I can't sit around and say, 'My mom was murdered, life sucks.' That's not really moving on," said Greg, who is pursing an associate degree at Moorpark College and said he eventually wants to get his master's. "I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid (Tire Pros); that's not what my mom would want. She wouldn't want me running away from the past."

His father agreed but admitted the last year has been very difficult on his family.

"On that tragic day I never thought I would survive one day, never mind one year," said Michael, who visits his wife's gravesite in Chatsworth once a week to bring fresh flowers.

"I wonder often why it took this tragedy to make me bring flowers to my wife," Michael said. "Things not said, things not done—they hang with me constantly."

He said he hopes the memorial bench will serve as a vessel to help keep Susan's memory alive.

"I don't want her to be forgotten—I don't want anybody to forget how ugly this stuff is," Michael said. "I don't want her to be another statistic—that woman killed outside a tire shop in Simi Valley.

"I want her to be remembered for what she was: an amazing woman and an incredible wife and mother."