Man who stabbed a 14-year-old girl to death in Rochester three decades ago gets paroled

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) – The news was shared with Mary Kotlik Tuesday. David R. Larson, the man who killed her sister, is getting paroled.

"If it was somebody else’s daughter or sister that was say the president’s, do you think they would get out? No," Kotlik said.

Kotlik was 19 years old when she discovered her sister stabbed to death inside their home.

Kotlik shared a 1985 photo of her sister Tracy holding Kotlik’s daughter.

A News10NBC camera was at Kotlik’s home the day of the murder in 1985 and our film captured Kotlik getting consoled.

Larson’s photo has never been released. The New York State Department of Corrections website says he is now 57 and he’s getting released in a month.

Brean: "You know he spent 37 years in prison."

Mary Kotlik: "It’s not enough."

I first met Mary Kotlik two years ago when she testified to the parole board against Larson’s release. Larson had been denied parole for a decade but in February of 2020, the state started to hear his case every nine months instead of every two years. Kotlik says Larson took more than her sister.

"It ruined my children’s life for them as a child because I was not a good mom because I just wanted to forget everything," she said. "So I would drink and do drugs. I felt like maybe, I wished it would have been me and not her."

"And those difficulties go back to your sister’s murder," I said.

"Yeah, he didn’t just take my sister’s life. He took my life. He took my kids’ life too because they didn’t’ have me when I should have been there for the," she said. "And I don’t care what anyone says—time does not heal everything."

New York has the lowest prison inmate rate in the country. The prison population decreased by 131 in the last six months. Some may have died but that’s mostly inmates who were released.

Larson gets out in mid-August.