MORGANTOWN – Rose Osborne was sitting at her kitchen table that day in November 2024 when she heard the knocking at her door.

The woman who waited seven months for her daughter Kim Osborne to come home, saw the silhouette of the officer through the window.

In that wrenching moment, she told a Monongalia County jury on Wednesday, she knew Kim was dead.

In that wrenching moment, she told those jurors, she thought of her daughter, in the dark and dirt of her shallow grave, with animals and elements getting at her.

A hunter discovered the skeletal remains of Kim Osborne, 48, in that makeshift grave in a wooded expanse near Little Indian Creek Road.

The grave was just a couple of miles from the house she shared with Joe Nevera.

“She was my child,” Rose said, in a whisper choked with emotion. “She was my baby. And I’m angry.”

As she was testifying, the man found guilty of first-degree murder in that daughter’s slaying, by that same jury in that same courtroom the day before, stared straight ahead without expression – as he had for the six previous days of the proceedings against him.

Jurors came back Wednesday with another verdict, this one calling for a sentence of life without mercy – meaning Nevera, 52, will have no chance of ever gaining parole during his incarceration.

Life with mercy would have meant at least the possibility of parole in 15 years when Nevera will be 67.

‘Why couldn’t you just let her walk away?’

Nevera’s counsel Christopher Wilson called the murder a tragedy, but asked the jury to consider that idea of mercy and redemption.

He stood by his earlier defense, he said, that there was no real concrete, clinical evidence pointing to his client as the perpetrator of the crime.

Prosecutor Gabrielle Mucciola, though, said the 12 men and women had already spoken through their verdict. Besides, she said: Nevera showed no mercy to Osborne on May 12, 2024 – Mother’s Day – when he strangled her to death.

She had been strangled and hit before, her friends and family testified, and with Nevera serving jail time after strangling her in 2022.

Drug and alcohol abuse on the part of both parties didn’t help, came the testimony.

Nevera’s ire was intensified even more, those on the stand said, by the fact that Osborne had begun seeing another man and was in the process of breaking off her relationship with him.

“Why couldn’t you just let her walk away?” her cousin Brandi Fawley asked tearfully, while looking at Nevera, who didn’t return her gaze.

Childhood, lost

Madison Lowther, 15, one of Kim’s three children, laughed and brushed tears as she remembered her mom.

She loved shopping at Goodwill with her mom.

And Kim loved bringing a cowbell to Madison’s basketball games, which never failed to make her daughter laugh – even if she would start out being embarrassed by the antics.

Today, she’s dealing with twin diagnoses of depression and anxiety. In 2024, she began grieving both for the loss of her mom and the experiences they’ll get to share, such as graduation or weddings.

Add the loss of her childhood, too, she said.

“I’m never gonna be able to be a kid again,” she said. “Because of him.”

Sentencing for Nevera will follow at a later date.

Osborne’s family and friends embraced on one side of the courtroom as Judge Cindy Scott adjourned the proceedings.

The other side was empty. Nevera’s mother, Eleanor, left after that morning’s testimony.

One juror glanced briefly in his direction on the way out.

Then bailiffs led Nevera out, for his return trip to the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County, where he’ll remain until the sentencing.