There is not a day that goes by, Jeff Crevitt said, that he doesn’t think about his daughter, Jennifer Nicole Crevitt — affectionately known as Nikki.

“I often wonder what she would be like, what my grandkids would be like, just everything. It’s just something I will never know,” Crevitt said.

A parent’s worst nightmare is losing their child, and for Crevitt the nightmare was compounded by the fact that Nikki was murdered.

In 1985, Lisa Crevitt, Nikki’s mother and Jeff’s ex-wife, was charged with taking 2-and-a-half-year-old Nikki’s life and was sentenced to life in prison.

But in the state of Mississippi, Jeff Crevitt said, after serving 10 years, a prisoner becomes eligible for parole.

Crevitt, who serves as a Warren County justice court judge, was against his ex-wife’s release 10 years after her sentencing and petitioned against it. And in doing so, also made a plea to the community to write letters to the Mississippi State Parole Board supporting his stance.

Lisa Crevitt remained in prison. However, every three years since, she has become eligible for parole. And likewise, every three years, Jeff has opposed her release.

This month, Lisa Crevitt will once again come before the parole board, and Jeff, like in years past, is asking the community to send in letters asking that she be kept behind bars.

What happened that night

On May 16, 1985, Lisa Crevitt claimed Nikki had been abducted from the Battlefield Mall, which was located where Blackburn Motor Company is now.

“I remember that night just like it was yesterday,” Jeff said. “Tons of people I didn’t even know at the time were at the mall helping search.”

The search continued until May 19, 1985, when Nikki’s body was found at the edge of the Sunflower diversion canal, just a few miles north of Vicksburg.

Jeff said Lisa had told the court she was on LSD at the time of the murder, but he said he had not believed her.

“I don’t believe that, because it was as premeditated as you can get. She had it planned out,” he said.

“She did what she did,” Jeff said, in murdering Nikki. “And then went to the mall hollering that (Nikki) was kidnapped. To me it was all premeditated; she had it all planned out and that was why the whole community was in an uproar over the way she did it.

A plea for help

Jeff said that, because Lisa’s actions “affected the whole community,” he wants the community to respond in kind by sending the parole board letters.

“She brought the community into it the way she did it (the claim Nikki had been kidnapped) and I want the community to speak out every time she comes up for parole,” he said.

For those wanting to send in a letter, they can be mailed to the five-member parole board at: 660 North St., Suite 100 A, Jackson MS 39202.

Petitioning the parole board each time Lisa comes up for early release takes its toll, Jeff said.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” he said. “Because every time we have to go over there, it is kind of like reliving it all over again.”

And the waiting, Jeff said, to hear the verdict from the parole board is even worse.

“That’s the worst part — not knowing, just like when she (Lisa) reported (Nikki) kidnapped and the days up until her body was discovered,” he said.

But this does not alter Jeff’s conviction to see justice served.

“I hate going through it every time and I hate putting (Lisa’s) parents through it every time, her mom and stepdad, but I’ll take my last breath trying to keep her locked up for what she did. She was sentenced to a life sentence, and I think that is where she needs to stay,” Jeff said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Nikki, because it’s just a hole that will never be filled – part of me is lost.”