INDIANAPOLIS — For as long as David Lannan remembers, his aunt Cecelia O'Bryan was an independent, caring and creative woman.
O'Bryan, 77, was a photographer and and an artist. She donated her time and her money to causes she cared about, including the arts, animals and programs to help the needy.
That is why, he said, the violence that led to her death is such a shock.
"I remember like, Thanksgiving she would come late because she would volunteer at the Mozel Sanders Thanksgiving dinner," Lannan said. "She did a lot of volunteer work and donated a lot of money to charity."
O'Bryan was the victim of a homicide about three months ago.
Police found O'Bryan's body just before 11 a.m. Feb. 11 during a welfare check at her west-side home in a neighborhood near West 16th Street and Lafayette Road.
The Marion County coroner's office found O'Bryan had been beaten and stabbed or cut to death. About two weeks later, Marion County prosecutors charged a 13-year-old boy with murder in connection with her death. Prosecutors charged another 13-year-old boy with burglarizing O'Bryan's home after her death.
"She shouldn't have had to die like that," Lannan said.
The boys are being charged as juveniles. A spokesman for Prosecutor Ryan Mears said the office is seeking to try the teen accused of murder in the adult court.
O'Bryan was an independent woman in any age when most women stayed home and raised children.
She never married, never had children, and dearly loved her nieces and nephews. She graduated from Marian College (now Marian University) in the 1960s and worked for the Indiana Department of Health for 33 years before she retired.
In her free time, she pursued artistic hobbies including photography and art.
She made beautiful water color paintings of trees, flowers, landscapes, all on small index-card sized pieces of art paper. Stashed in her home, Lannan found photo-albums filled with hundreds of her little paintings.
O'Bryan enjoyed the outdoors, lovingly tended her garden and was known to set food out for the cats in the neighborhood.
Lannan said he fondly remembers the time when he was a kid and "Aunt Mikey" taught him how to hand color black-and-white photos. He found a photo they worked on together, two buildings behind a pier on a lake, when he was cleaning out her home. It's a picture he prizes now.
"She would never hurt anybody. I bet she'd hardly ever raised her voice to anybody," Lannan, 54, said. "She was a peaceful person. And you can see she spent a lot of her time doing the art and photography and things like that."
Lannan and the rest of O'Bryan's family know few details about how she died.
Her family does not know the names of the boys who have been arrested and charged. Those names have never been publicly released by police, prosecutors or the courts.
But Lannan said the family finds some peace in knowing that detectives solved the case at a time when so many homicides in Indianapolis remain unsolved. IMPD saw a record 271 homicides last year; about 60% have not been solved.
More: Two 13-year-olds arrested in killing of 77-year-old woman, burglary in Indianapolis | Woman's death investigated as homicide after Indianapolis police conduct welfare check
More importantly, Lannan said his family wants to remember his Aunt Mikey's passion for life and love of art, nature and helping others.
"We'd rather remember her alive and as a person who did creative things and helped people than to think about how she left this world," Lannan said.
People We've Lost: These are the Indianapolis homicide victims of 2022
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on Twitter: @vicryc.
-
Putin claims Russia attacked Ukraine with a new missile that the West can't stop
Russian President Vladimir Putin claims Russia attacked Ukraine with a new missile that the West can't stop.
Man sentenced to 20 years in prison after shaking infant son to death in 2021
An Indianapolis father will spend over 20 years in prison after telling detectives “I lost my cool” when prosecutors say he caused the shaken-baby death of his 4-month-old son.
Medicare says scammers are targeting Americans amid open enrollment period
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from Medicare, be weary. Officials say it could be a scam.
11 indicted in connection to meth trafficking operation in Indianapolis
Eleven people are being federally charged in connection to a meth trafficking operation in Indianapolis. This comes after a series of DEA led raids took place on Wednesday.
