FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter) --- "Just the empty feeling, just so empty, not being able to see her again, not being able to see her, it's just like my heart left, my heart left," says Gabe Martinez.

He's describing the day he found out his only child, his "little girl", attending university nearly 2 thousand miles away in Fort Wayne would never return home to New Mexico.

Police say IPFW graphic arts student Liette "Lola" Martinez was stabbed to death in her campus apartment by her roomate's mother, 36-year-old Tina Morris.

"I can't explain the feeling, there are times just very empty, and times when just uncontrollable with crying, she was our only child," says her mother, Geraldine Martinez.

On the way to her initial court hearing, Indiana's NewsCenter asked Morris if she wished she could take it all back. Morris nodded her head, as if to say yes.

"When I heard that response, I said it's a little too late," says Liette's mother.

"I mean she can be remorseful, but in me its too soon for me, its too soon for me," says Liette's father.

Still, the family, strong in Catholic faith, says they agree with the prosecutor's decision not to seek the death penalty and don't believe punishment for Morris is up to them.

"We're not here to judge anybody, we don't believe in it, Liette didn't believe in it, she was always outspoken about that," says her father.

"I don't hate the woman, it's going to take a process to forgive her for what she's done," says her mother.

The Martinez family made the trip to Fort Wayne, not only for their own daughter, but for someone else's. They lost their child, but say in essence their daughter's roomate lost a parent.

"We're here for her and let her know we don't blame her for any of this," says Geraldine Martinez.

"To counsel her, we're just here to see her through all this too," says Gabe.

Still, questions remain surrounding the death of a young woman who continues to spread the love she possessed even after her passing, as family from New Mexico embrace friends from Fort Wayne.

"I just feel her when I hug them, I'd love to take them all home with me," says Liette's grandmother Becky Estrada.

Estrada wonders, "Why, why did she have to lose her life? There's a purpose to everything...."

The Martinez family is in the initial stages of setting up a scholarship fund for their daughter. They hope to grant it to a student studying Graphic Arts at New Mexico State University and maybe in the future at IPFW. Liette was studying graphic arts and they believe this is a way for someone to carry out her dreams.