Community rallies for Billings children

PENSACOLA, Fla. - It's the first Christmas the Billings children will spend without their parents, and the community it rallying to make the holiday easier for the family.

Byrd and Melanie Billings were found shot to death in their Beulah, Florida home in July 2009. Their nine adopted special needs children were all in the home at the time of the brutal killings.

Five months ago, the Billings' daughter, 27-year-old Ashley Markham, became the parents of those nine children. As the family attorney, Robert Beasley, described, the family is still trying to come to terms of the Billings' deaths.

"These children are coming to deal their grief in different stages," he said.

Beasley said the holiday season has been the hardest. Markham is trying to keep everything like how it used to be.

"The absence of Bud and Melanie at Christmas is being felt more, because Christmas was such a special time for them. They invited other people into their home. Because these children were such a great celebration, the void and absence is more," he added.

Markham and the children are in Mississippi, but they'll be back home on Christmas. Thanks to the help of the community, Santa won't be skipping over their house.

"So right now, what Ashley is paying attention to is the gifts. That's where community has helped, blessed where people have said take this money by buying the kids the toys," Beasley said.

Instead of sending out client presents, a court reporting firm sent out a little note out to all their clients letting them know they they donated more than $1,000 to the Billings family.

"It just broke my heart. I talked to Ashley directly; I said, 'I want to do this, I want to do this, specifically for Christmas presents for them,'" Mike Wierzbicki with Wierzbicki Court Reporting said.

Beasley says what the family needs most is a plan for future medical bills and expenses. The family has a trust set up to help pay for the children's future.