ROCHESTER. N.Y. – It's a memory like it was yesterday.

"We had only been married two and a half months,” Joe Forte said. “And to come home into our bedroom and find her lying there, it was shocking. My whole life changed."

But it's been 25 years since Joe Forte's wife, Michelle Lentine-Forte, was killed.

Stabbed repeatedly in their home by someone they'd come to trust.

"This was a neighbor, this was a person who was in need,” Forte said. “How was I to expect that something like this would happen?"

Leroy Anderson was sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison. He'll make his case for parole in November, but Michelle's family will be heard first, going before the parole board on Friday.

"I opened the door screaming ‘what happened’,” said Michelle’s sister, Dina Aronson, reading from the letter she plans to share at the parole hearing. “Only to hear the most horrific words come out of my mother's mouth: 'Dina they killed her, they killer your sister.'"

Michelle's family says parole gave Anderson the freedom to kill Michelle back in 1994.

"The system has failed,” Aronson said. “This man, out early on parole. She'd still be alive."

"The opportunities that the judicial system had to keep Leroy out of the community and keep Michelle safe,” Forte said. “They missed time and time again."

But as they make their case on Friday, they won't be doing it alone.

"Dina and I aren't just going in there with Michelle's mom,” Forte said. “Dina and I are going in there with the voices of 13,000 people."

They'll be taking with them a petition, thousands of signatures long.

"I closed my eyes and I clicked that button to publish it,” Aronson said of the day she created the petition on Change.org. “And I knew the whirlwind that was going to happen and the feelings going back to day one of the crime."

From day one to year 25, they'll keep fighting for Michelle.

"And that's to tell the parole board listen, if Joe forte wasn't here, if Dina Aronson wasn't here to talk to you, there's still 13,000 people in your community that still care a great deal about this,” said Forte.

The petition is closed at this time.

Michelle's family says they will have to make their case to the parole board every two years if Anderson is denied parole. They hope to be able to work with state officials to change that for themselves and other victims.