PARKERSBURG — A family remains hopeful justice will be brought upon the person responsible for the death of a Wood County woman nine years ago.

“The pain doesn’t go away,” said Kelly Poiani, whose sister Judith Petty’s remains were recovered Feb. 9, 2008, in a burned out building on a farm owned by their father, Marvin Petty, on West Virginia 31 in Waverly. She was reported missing several days earlier.

Poiani said her task in life is to make sure her sister and the circumstances of her death are not forgotten. Someone may remember seeing something that could be valuable for investigators or a witness may finally pick up a phone and call the sheriff’s department with information, she said.

“It’s going to take the right person to make the phone call who knows something,” said Poiani, who lives in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Parents Marvin and Joan Petty reside in Parkersburg.

The last time Judith Petty was seen alive was on Feb. 6, 2008. She was walking from her home in north Parkersburg to the Parkersburg/Wood County Public Library where she was going to return books and was last seen near 36th Street and Emerson Avenue.

She was 48.

Among other issues, her remains were mixed up at the office of the medical examiner in Charleston, which had performed autopsies on two young children killed in a house in Jackson County that occurred a little over a week after the fire in Wood County.

The case is under investigation by the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. The family also has created a Facebook page, Justice for Judith Petty.

Lt. Bruce Riffle, chief of the law enforcement division in the sheriff’s department, also remains hopeful a resolution will come some day. He keeps the files in his office to remind him.

“I see it every day,” Riffle said.

Anyone with information can call the Wood County Sheriff’s Office at 304 424-1834 or Riffle’s direct line at 304-424-1829.

It has been difficult for the family and has affected everyone’s life, Poiani said. Four sisters are in the family.

The issue at present is someone keeps taking the signs about the incident that the family erects, she said.

“We’re still trying to get people to leave the signs alone,” Poiani said.

The stress has been harder on her parents, but is affecting everyone, she said. While it won’t bring Judith back, finding the killers and a resolution of the case will ease some of the burden, Poiani said.

“I sure don’t want to go the rest of my life and not know who did it,” she said.