By Lori EhdeTuesday marks another year since the murder of Blue Mounds State Park worker Carrie Nelson.The case remains an open investigation, but with no new leads or productive tips, it also remains unsolved.Park Naturalist Dave Rambow said the Blue Mounds is shedding the image of "the park where the girl was murdered," but he said it’s taken a toll on workers’ morale."I don’t know if you’d call it survivor’s guilt, but there’s a lot of us wishing we ‘would have, should have could have…’ I know I wish I had been there that day."He said most of the campers are from outside of Rock County, so he doesn’t get many questions from them, but Rambow said he still gets questions from the locals about the murder.And that, he said, is hard on everyone. "I think, because it’s an unsolved case, it’s like an open sore," he said.For Carrie’s friends and family members, time is beginning to heal their pain, but now more than ever, they want her to be remembered.Her father, Stan Nelson, said he continues to visit her grave every day, twice a day."Carrie is with me still every day, and I think about her all the time. I think all the time about what I can do to honor her memory," he said Tuesday. "I want to live the best life I can … She was a kind and loving kid, and if we can all be a little more like her, the world will be a better place."A Carrie Nelson memorial flower garden will be planted this spring near the Blue Mounds State Park Interpretive Center.Nelson, 20, was found beaten to death at the Blue Mounds State Park entrance building in the afternoon of Sunday, May 20.The 1999 Luverne High School graduate was a park employee and had been working the 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift at the park when she was killed.Investigators still welcome tips at the Rock County Sheriff’s Department’s non-emergency number, 283-5000.
