They were tight growing up, the Lanham sisters.
Separated by two-year increments, Lauren, the oldest, always looked out for middle sister Lindsey and Molley, the youngest, who tagged along with her older siblings wherever they went.
Molley, then 19, was brutally murdered in rural Hebron six years ago with boyfriend Thomas Grill Jr., 18, when they met up with Conner Kerner of Valparaiso, then 17, for a drug deal that went awry. Grill, from Cedar Lake, and Molley were 2018 graduates of Hanover Central High School.
Thomas Grill Jr., 18, of Cedar Lake and Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John, were murdered on Feb. 25, 2019.
Sitting through Kerner’s trial and that of his co-defendant, John Silva II, would inevitably change the course of Lauren’s and Lindsey’s lives — it would be impossible for the tragedy of their sister’s death, compounded by reliving that horror in grim detail in court, not too.
Lindsey and Lauren, who live in St. John, had both considered legal careers before Molley was murdered. Lindsey was in law school during the trial and, after a hung jury failed to convict Silva, who later entered a guilty plea, she decided to switch her focus from corporate governance to criminal law.
She has been a Lake County deputy prosecutor for more than two years and now, she’s working alongside her older sister. Lauren passed the bar on Feb. 25, the sixth anniversary of Molley’s death, and was sworn in as a Lake County deputy prosecutor last week.
“Molley’s death and murder is the whole reason I’m here,” said Lauren, 29, sitting in a conference room in the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office.
Lauren wanted to go to law school before her sister, Lindsey said.
“When she came to this office, I think I was talking so much about work” that it inspired Lauren, Lindsey said.
The work, Lindsey said, allows her and her sister to form relationships with people facing what they have been through.
“When she decided, I was excited about it and a little nervous,” Lindsey said, adding she’s looking forward to “Lanham and Lanham” prosecuting a case someday.
With an interest in civil law, including divorces and adoptions, Lauren figured she would stay on that side of the legal world. She was impressed by “a wonderful team” of Porter County prosecutors who handled the murder case.
There is a stigma around murder victims.
“It’s such a taboo subject,” Lauren said. “I never felt that with Porter County. They treated Molley and Thomas with such dignity. For Lindsey and I both, it was wanting to do that for someone else.”
Lauren graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington in 2018 and took a few years off as she decided what she wanted to do. She worked for a country club in Flossmoor, Illinois, but got laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic a year after Molley was murdered.
She worked as a personal assistant for a woman in Chicago who became a mentor during tumultuous times.
“She helped me take all these big emotions and find what would be a meaningful career,” Lauren said.
The woman also helped establish the Molley Lanham Foundation, run by the Lanham sisters’ mother, Stacy Spejewski.
The foundation provides support for the families of homicide victims, and to the victims’ assistance programs in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, Lauren said. The foundation also partnered with the Porter County Prosecutor’s Office for a suite for crime victims and their families at the Porter County Courthouse. The suite offers a main space, soft interview room, family grieving room, and comfort rooms offering victims a place to rest between court sessions or to meet with prosecutors.
The pandemic delayed Kerner’s trial, Lauren said, and in the meantime, she signed up to take the Law School Admission Test. Because of the trial delays, her test date fell during the murder trial.
“It all worked out how it was supposed to, and I took the bar exam in February on the anniversary of Molley’s passing,” she said. “I don’t know if I believed that stuff before but for those big moments, she’s definitely around.”
Lauren decided to go to law school in March 2020 and graduated from Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
As kids, Lauren, Lindsey and Molley were “very, very close,” Lauren said.
“I always felt like sisterhood was important to me and being the oldest, I always felt kind of protective,” she said. “And we were so close in age, we had a lot of the same friends.”
The trio was known as “the Lanham girls,” she said. “We were always a package deal.”
Their mom often dressed them in matching clothes, which they griped about when they were younger, but now Lauren said she and Lindsey show up in similar outfits at least once a week. Additionally, they borrow each other’s clothes, providing entertaining fodder for their coworkers.
Lauren and Lindsey following the same career path in the same office, then, isn’t that much of a stretch, though Lauren said they didn’t expect to work together.
“I think it’s funny because before Molley’s passing, we both wanted to go to law school but we weren’t sure what we would do with it,” Lauren said.
Sitting through the trials for Kerner and Silva, the sisters felt a strong connection to Molley.
“It puts some perspective on things,” Lauren said, about what a victim’s family goes through.
Lauren is eager to get started in the prosecutor’s office, work she said “you have to be passionate about,” and can see herself working there for a long time.
The sisters’ mom sometimes pops in when one of her daughters is prosecuting a case, Lindsey said.
“I think Mom loves it. She’s proud,” Lindsey said.
Lauren said the work of her and her sister gives their mother inspiration about how to connect with people through the Molley Lanham Foundation. That furthers a sense of community for the families of homicide victims, Lindsey said.
“Prior to losing Molley, I had never been in any situation like this and I wasn’t aware that it was going on around me,” Lindsey said, adding her job is “almost like exposure therapy,” helping others navigate what she’s been through.
“And we’re honoring Molley’s life and legacy. It was such a short life lived,” Lauren said, adding she and her sister have empathy to help others. “If this is a way to continue that legacy, it doesn’t bring closure but it keeps Molley’s light shining bright.”
Molley, Lindsey said, was always known to give people second and third chances.
“That’s something I try to remember with my victims,” she said. “She’s constantly in this job, every single day.”
Kerner, 24, of Valparaiso, was initially sentenced to 179 years in prison for the murders of Molley and Grill after a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder, one count of robbery causing serious bodily injury, and one arson count. The Indiana Court of Appeals trimmed 25 years off his sentence. His earliest release date, according to the Indiana Department of Correction website, is Aug. 31, 2134.
He is incarcerated at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility just south of Terre Haute.
The criminal trial for co-defendant John Silva II of Hamlet ended in a hung jury in June 2021. Now 24, Silva pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attempted robbery and welfare fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 10 years on probation. His earliest release date, according to online records from IDOC, is Nov. 22, 2037. Silva is housed at the Correctional Industrial Facility in Pendleton.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
