Cleveland parents of Alianna DeFreeze, 14, receive $1M settlement after her 2017 murder

The family of an Ohio girl who was raped and murdered by a sex offender while on her way to school five years ago has received a $1 million settlement in connection with a lawsuit filed against her school and the city, according to a report.

The 14-year-old's body was found days after she was killed in an abandoned home. Her mother said she didn’t find out her daughter was absent from school until 4 p.m. and by that time the family had lost precious hours that could have been spent looking for her.   "Death is too certain, too quick. You deserve to suffer and sit there and think about what you did."

"You know, you don’t know when this will hit you," Alianna’s father Damon DeFreeze told WOIO-TV of Cleveland last year about how he mourns. "I drive, it hits me. I just cry for no reason. You know, when I was working, it hits ya at work. You know, it’s just, it’s a never-ending thing, but I’m still standing."

Alianna's killer, Christopher Whitaker, appealed his death sentence to the Ohio Supreme Court last year.