PHOENIX — Greg Boncella was 16 years old when he came home from school to a street filled with police lights and officers. Now, more than 44 years later, those memories have come back to haunt him.
"Sometimes you think you get over something and you find out you never really get over it," Boncella said. "It's so sad I never got to know her as an adult. She never got to see my sister get married, she never got to meet my son, my daughter, granddaughter. It really affects generations."
On Dec. 3, 1979, Boncella's mother, Mary Yates, came home and found Daniel Cahill, then 22, inside her house. That's when Cahill stabbed Yates. She was then taken to a hospital where she died.
"She was a single mom and that changed the trajectory of our family," Boncella said. "It didn't just impact myself, my brother and my sister but our grandmother and our kids. It affects generations and now 40-something years later, I like to think I was passed it but now you never really get past it."
Boncella thinks about his mother daily. However, the pain of her death came back to front and center after he received word that Cahill escaped on Feb. 14.
MORE DETAILS: Convicted murderer, Daniel Cahill, is back in custody after he 'absconded' from his supervised release
"That's what they had said that he had cut off his ankle monitor and he was not communicating with his parole officer," he said. "It brings back the hard feelings from back in the day."
It wasn't the first time Cahill had gotten away from authorities. Before killing Yates, Cahill escaped from a California prison and made his way to Phoenix. On the day of the murder, he burglarized several other homes before entering Yates' house.
Cahill was arrested shortly after the stabbing. He was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in 1980 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
"I was under the impression he'd be in jail for life, so I really didn't think much about him until this all kind of came back around," Boncella said.
Cahill was granted supervised parole, but escaped in 1991. He was then granted supervised parole again in 2023. Boncella says he and his family were at the hearing and felt like Cahill never showed remorse.
"I still felt like the Parole Board was trying to almost coach him on what to say and even with that he still couldn't say those words like, 'I'm so sorry for what I did, I think about it everyday, I'm sorry about the hurt I must've caused.' So it was really interesting he was getting out," Boncella said.
Cahill was found and arrested three days after his escape. News of his capture brought relief to Boncella. Still, the pain and heartache of losing his mom hurt more than ever.
"I do feel relief knowing he's caught, and he can't hurt anybody else," he said. "And hopefully as a family, we can finally rest knowing he's behind bars and hopefully this won't have to come up again."
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