The niece of murder victim Noel Starback called this week to say she’ll be thinking about her uncle today.

Dec. 11 would have been her uncle’s 60th birthday.

“I like celebrating the person’s birth more than remembering the anniversary of their death,” Paige Smith of Waterford said. “It’s sad he’s not with us.”

Starback and Sherry Roush were bludgeoned with a baseball bat at their apartment on Blinman Street in New London on April 13, 2012. Their neighbor, Joel Matthews, last month pleaded guilty to killing them after a day of drinking and to setting fire to their apartment to cover up the crime. He will be sentenced Jan. 21 to 42 years in prison.

Starback, who grew up in Quaker Hill, was a handyman whose carpentry can be seen at Y-Knot Cafe and Bank Street Cafe. In 2007, he repainted the 30 steel carousel horses at Ocean Beach Park. His niece said he had fallen off a ladder and was recovering from a broken back when he was killed.

Smith said Matthews’ court case seemed like it went “on and on” before it was resolved. Then, she said, she started thinking about another family that is still waiting for answers. Kyle Seidel was fatally shot in Waterford on Dec. 21, 2012. Police have not charged anybody, but say they are actively investigating. Smith said a relative lives in the same neighborhood as Seidel’s wife and children and, even though she doesn’t know them, she feels for them.

Here’s hoping they get the answers they are seeking before another anniversary passes.