Murder Victim's Mother: “My Heart Is Destroyed”

Joseph David Dorsey was convicted of strangling his girlfriend and stuffing her body in a suitcase.

The mother of a slain California woman who was strangled and stuffed in a suitcase blasted her daughter's convicted killer on Friday, saying she feels “so much hate” for the man and wishes he would suffer the same way her daughter did.

“I dream about my girl all the time,” Judith Brauer, the mother of Christine Stewart, said during Friday's sentencing hearing for Joseph David Dorsey. “I keep thinking she’s still going to come home.

“My heart is destroyed. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my daughter because she was stuck in a suitcase for three days," she added.

Dorsey, 29, was sentenced to serve 56 years to life in state prison for killing Stewart, a woman he once dated, and stuffing her body in a suitcase before leaving it in a motel.

The Lake Elsinore man was convicted of first degree murder in June.

The case began Aug. 6, 2012, when police received a report that Stewart had gone missing.

Investigators learned that Dorsey had checked into a room at a Best Western in Poway, but never checked out.

So motel employees took possession of property he left behind, including a 3-foot by 18-inch rolling suitcase with the 5-foot-2 body inside, police said.

Dorsey and Stewart were dating at the time of the slaying and he killed her at his Lake Elsinore apartment before heading to Poway, officials said.

Dorsey, who is an American citizen, was arrested at Rosarito Beach, Mexico, on Oct. 23, 2012. 

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