KANSAS CITY, Mo. –The man who was convicted of the rape and murder of a Kansas City teenager is put to death for his crime. After several last ditch efforts to stay his execution were denied, the state of Missouri executed Roderick Nunley.

On Tuesday FOX 4 heard from a woman who was friends with the victim back in 1989.

“Ann was just a great person. She was very kind and just had a beautiful smile. She was very athletic played a lot of sports. She played the flute and got good grades generally liked by everyone,” said Carrie Willis.

Time hasn’t faded the memory of Ann Harrison’s death for Willis. Twenty-six years after Ann’s death, Willis says sometimes it feels like it just happened.

“We were 15, so we still kind of had an innocence, or belief that the world was a safe place and so it just kind of robbed that from us,” said Willis.

Ann was a student at Raytown South High School, when she was waiting for her school bus the morning of March 22, 1989. That’s the last time she was seen alive.

Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor were both convicted for the kidnap, rape and murder of Ann Harrison. The tragedy is said to have brought her former classmates closer, even decades after the tragedy.

Willis said, “Our class now has children about the same age and it just never leaves you. You are always kind of thinking are there those bad guys out there going to do something like that to our children?”

Taylor was put to death in 2014 for his role in the crime. Willis hopes the execution of both men will bring much needed closure. Willis said she felt the execution was long overdue, and even became angry and disappointed with the justice system as she waited.