Thursday, October 5th 2017, 9:40 pm
For the first time since the trial of two Rogers County brothers we are hearing from Maranda Talley.
Maranda Talley is the sole survivor of a hit and run crash that seriously injured her and killed her friend Noelle New 2 1/2 years ago.
Last month, a Rogers County Jury found Gage Shriver guilty of 1st degree manslaughter and Dakota Shriver guilty of 2nd degree murder.
9/29/2017 Related Story: Rogers County Jury Reaches Verdict In Shriver Brothers Case
Maranda said just coming to the courthouse day after day took a lot of guts.
For the past two and a half years she's been waiting to get some kind of justice. And while the verdict won't bring her friend back, it's the first step in helping her push forward.
Two smiling high school graduates with their lives ahead of them is how you see Maranda Talley and Noelle New in a picture, but that story changed suddenly.
"I live every day knowing that she can't be here so I’m going to do this for her and she’s my biggest motivation that I've ever had," Talley said.
Talley now can only go on through life without her friend.
Noelle New died when a truck hit them both and drove away.
"There is a sense of comfort knowing that I cannot run into them in public, I always had that fear," Talley said.
She said the thought of seeing them or even reading about them on social media brought flashbacks of lying in a ditch in excruciating pain in the middle of the night with her best friend dying beside her.
Ann Rutherford, Maranda’s mother said, "She would just freak out her or her sisters even [saying] ‘mom don't go down this road we can't’."
In that spot now stands a makeshift memorial. For the last two and a half years she couldn't bring herself to go, but after the guilty verdict, she found that strength with her mother right beside her.
"She showed me exactly this is where I was, this is where Noelle was, the truck was right there." Said Maranda’s mother.
Maranda said the broken part of her heart can't be mended and you never get over it but you can breathe a sigh of relief and push on.
"I feel like I’m free from the chains that had been holding me back before." She said.
To honor Noelle News life, her family started a scholarship in her memory.
For more about the scholarship and how you can contribute visit their Facebook page or website.
October 5th, 2017
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