A tragedy -- the 1988 brutal murder in Wyoming of their 18-year-old daughter -- brought a Colorado couple and the sister of the convicted killer together. They are hopeful that their unlikely friendship can help other victims' families.

Sheila and Ron Kimmell have no animosity toward Judy Mason, which may be difficult for some people to understand. Mason's brother, Dale Wayne Eaton, was convicted in 2004 of the murder, rape and kidnapping of Lisa Marie Kimmell and sentenced to death in a Casper courtroom.

But to the Kimmells, Mason and her family are also Eaton's victims. "They're people like us," Ron Kimmell explained Monday to a victims' studies class at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. "They don't have any shame to bear, but that's how society looks at things."

Eaton has never expressed any remorse for killing the teenager, whose car was discovered buried on his Moneta property in 2002 after a DNA match finally linked him to the murder. He's also been considered a possible suspect in the deaths of up to 12 other women in Wyoming and the West, but there hasn't been enough evidence to charge him in any of those cases. If he was involved, barring a confession, he might take that knowledge to the grave.

But Mason, who said she still loves her brother but can't forgive him for what he did, asked for a meeting at the Wyoming State Penitentiary with Eaton, who agreed. Mason wants Sheila Kimmell by her side, but Eaton hasn't decided if he will talk to her.

The women's goal is to see if Eaton might at least bring some peace to the families of any other victims by letting them know what happened to the women. "If he decides not to talk to Sheila, I'm going to talk to him, and I'm going to beg him to tell me if there was anybody else" he harmed, Mason said.

We can't imagine how difficult it would be for Sheila Kimmell to face her daughter's killer, but being willing to do it to help other families is perfectly in character for her. She has demonstrated an amazing strength throughout her own family's ordeal. Any one would have understood if she had shunned Eaton's family, but instead she and her husband embraced the opportunity to become friends with Mason.

It's ironic that a case that highlights the absolute worst of human behavior has a flip side that displays so much compassion for others.