Zero to Life

After the verdict, Rob Auerbach, Lisl's stepfather, made a comment that he regretted almost immediately and continues to regret. As the police filed past him, he said, "There go the Nazis."

Today Auerbach still weeps when he talks about Lisl's predicament. Colleen remembers being at a picnic last summer and hearing a neighbor talk about a nervous breakdown she'd suffered. "I remember thinking, 'Well, how do you have one of those?'" Colleen says. "I qualify to have one."

She thinks about her daughter constantly. "Her life has been so short," Colleen says. "She hasn't had an opportunity to make major decisions and plan long-range goals. Our kids do things that make us mad sometimes and things we question, but Lisl is anybody's kid. And we are just any family.