Victims of 2013’s Boston Marathon bombing and their loved ones are waiting for closure as the sentencing phase of convicted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial unfolds.

By Josie Grove

Runner Kevin McWatters skipped the Boston Marathon this year. He ran the race twelve times, but his last race was in 2013.

That year, his then fiancée Karen Rand was waiting for him at the finish line with her friend Krystle Campbell. She lost her leg as a result of the bombing, and Campbell was among the three people killed that day.

Kevin McWatters was approaching the finish line when the bombs exploded. At the time, he did not know what was happening. “I thought it was a manhole cover that blew up. I didn’t know,” he said. After the bombing, “It was chaotic. Cell phone services were shut off, everything.”

In the days and weeks after the bombing, McWatters said, “The love from everywhere, it was overwhelming.” The community came together to help raise money for Karen’s medical treatment, and McWatters remembers a sense of togetherness in the streets. He takes pride in how the region came together after the bombing. “This wasn’t going to determine the future. We weren’t going to hide in our shells.”

“You should be able to go out on a beautiful day, go somewhere and not get blown up.”

McWatters is in favor of heightened security and surveillance at the marathon this year. “You’ve got to protect the people. It’s a different world now. You have to watch everyone now. You’ve got to watch what people are carrying.” The increased security is worth the trade-offs in privacy and convenience for McWatters, if it can prevent another bombing. “We don’t want to see this happen again. It’s too much heartache.”

During the Tsarnaev trial, the damage of the bombs was evident in the courtroom. McWatters recalls a number of injured, disabled, and grieving witnesses, people struggling with everything from hearing loss to the loss of a child. “Karen’s walking in there to testify with a prosthetic leg on. It’s there to see.” McWatters remembers the moving testimony of the victims and their families. “He destroyed so many people’s lives. I just want to see justice served like everyone else.”

McWatters has faith in the civilian justice system to deal the “mass destruction, murder, mayhem,” of which Tsarnaev has now been convicted. “It doesn’t matter who you are, you go to trial. Everyone’s innocent until proven guilty,” McWatters said while indicating he is satisfied with the outcome. “Now we can call him a convicted terrorist, murderer that he is.”

As the sentencing phase of the trial begins, McWatters remains confident in the justice system’s ability to deal with this case. “Is the system foolproof? Absolutely not. But in this case, it’s cut and dry.” McWatters cites the surveillance footage, Tsarnaev’s “confession” note on the boat in Watertown, and most of all, the jury’s decision to convict Tsarnaev for all thirty crimes with which he was charged. “The jury spoke volumes. He’s thirty for thirty.”

McWatters is anxious for closure. “We’ll just play it out now and we’ll all get finality, whatever way it comes. Whatever the jury says, I respect that wholeheartedly. As soon as he next phase is over, we’ll have closure. Then we can move on.”

McWatters’s wife Karen is registered for the From Beach to Beacon 10K road race in Maine this August. For McWatters, that race will be another form of closure as Karen recovers from her injury of two years ago. “That’s when I’ll say Karen’s finally here, back to normal.”