Deborah McCormack not only touched lives – she comforted them with flowers.

“There were a lot of lives she touched, a lot of people,” her daughter, Dawn Kirkland, said. “She wanted to make weddings affordable. She wanted to make flowers affordable for families who couldn’t.”

The 44-year-old mother of two ran the family’s chapel and flower shop.

Her daughters say it was more than a job.  It was a chance to bring a smile to others.

“She made every person that walked in there feel very special,” Kirkland said.

That included Michael Durwood Griffith, a man who quickly became a customer – and months later, her killer.

“Some people have been able to forgive him, but there’s not one part of me that thinks I ever could,” daughter Brandy Ridley said.

Ridley was only 18 when a drive to her mother’s shop changed her life forever.

“Seeing the cops and the media and the yellow tape surrounding the flower shop that we all grew up in was, I think … was the worst thing about it and finding out that way,” Ridley said.

It was October of 1994 when Griffith walked into the shop looking to buy six long stem roses.  Instead, he pulled a pistol and robbed McCormack before raping and stabbing her to death.

Because of that, man who carried a gun for 20 years as a lawman became a convicted criminal himself.

“I couldn’t believe it at first that he was actually a police officer,” Ridley said.

That was the initial shock.  But the more lasting one has to do with how long justice has taken to run its course.

“If there is irrefutable evidence as there was in this case, then I don’t see why it should take so long,” Kirkland said.

Twelve years after he was convicted, Griffith is scheduled to die this week.

And you can bet Deborah McCormack’s family will be there, if not for closure, for justice.

“It’s the end of a chapter, and it’s time to move on,” Kirkland said.