PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Kyrsten Malcom has been holding onto a simple crayon drawing for four years now.
- Kyrsten Malcom, a paralegal, saw Phoebe on her last day alive
- Malcom was set to testify during Jonchuck trial with powerful statement
- She said Jonchuck said, "If I can't have her, no one else can," refering to Phoebe
- Malcom was unable to testify after a discovery violation
"Well she wrote my name. I thought it was just the cutest thing. That's something that touched me," Malcom said. "It's not something that I felt like I could ever throw away."
The little girl who drew it was Phoebe Jonchuck, who Malcom said was smiling and happy on the very last day she ever saw her. The girl's father, John Jonchuck, brought Phoebe to the family law office where Malcom worked just hours before he threw her to her death off the Dick Misener Bridge back in 2015.
"I didn't believe it until I turned on the TV and looked at the news," said a tearful Malcom. "And that's when it clicked for me that it really happened."
Malcom kept notes of what unfolded that day, including a detailed account of something Jonchuck said when he called the office not long after he left. It was a statement so powerful, Malcom was set to testify about it at Jonchuck's murder trial.
"He called, and he said, 'I don't know what to do anymore, and if I can't have her, no one else can,'" Malcom recalled. "I feel like it was crucial. That was extremely important to know."
But the jury never got the chance to hear the statement. The judge ruled it a discovery violation after learning the prosecution didn't disclose it ahead of time.
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Malcom said she spent the rest of the trial on edge.
"What if they say he's not guilty? What if they do say that he's insane? What if my testimony could've made a difference," Malcom said she wondered.
In the end, the jury came back with a guilty verdict. Still, Malcom isn't sure how to feel.
"I thought I would be happy," she said. "I thought when the trial was over, I'd have that closure. But personally, I don't think there's such thing as closure anymore."
Instead, Malcom said she will always carry the sadness of what happened to Phoebe with her, along with the drawing the girl made her that fateful day.
