Nathaniel Bevers McGivney

Nathaniel Bevers McGivney

ROCKWELL CITY — The family of a 17-year-old girl killed at the Farnhamville City Park last fall said on Friday that the day she died is the day they did as well.

“Not only did you take her life, but you took her family’s too,” said Shawna Bachman, older sister to Michele “Luna” Jackson, who was murdered last September.

Bachman spoke Friday in Calhoun County District Court as part of the sentencing of Nathaniel Bevers McGivney, 22, who was convicted last month of first degree murder in the death of Jackson. Investigators and prosecutors say that on Sept. 22, 2024, Bevers McGivney cut Jackson’s throat and stabbed her at least 26 times in the head and torso before disposing of her body in a trash bin.

“Our lives now have a giant piece missing, and we will never be whole again,” Bachman said. “Even our hometown is plagued now with all these horrific memories. The swing where she spent so much of her time is now empty and silent. It’s a constant reminder of what you took from me. Every drive I take is filled with triggers from that night — my drive to work, to my mom’s house, to the library — I have to pass by the places that still hold the echoes of the worst night of my life.”

“You murdered my 17-year-old sister who was just going to the park,” said Bachman. “A place my baby sister went every night as her own personal safe haven from the rest of the world. A place she found peaceful, comforting, and safe. A place where she could just swing for hours and feel OK within herself, and you desecrated that. You took her life in a place she felt secure. She didn’t do anything to you, and you went out of your way to kill my defenseless, innocent sister. She thought she’d be safe. We all thought so. There was absolutely no reason to think otherwise.”

Bevers McGivney was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday. The sentence is a mandatory minimum sentence in Iowa for first-degree murder.

“As Michele’s big sister, it haunts me that I wasn’t able to protect her from you,” said Bachman. “That I wasn’t able to be there when it mattered most, so this is what I do with the pain that I couldn’t save her –I turn it on you. I stand here and fiercely speak for her, and make sure you’re held accountable for what you did. I protect her now the only way I can. I speak because she can’t. I carry her voice in mine. … You didn’t just kill my sister, you tried to erase her. But you failed. You mutilated her body, but you never touched her soul, and you never will. She lives in everything I do, in everyone who loves her, in every breath I take for her. She is forever remembered in love. And you — you’ll rot in the memory of your own hate, alone, unseen, forgotten.”