I have a close friend whose son's girlfriend murdered a friend. She and two other teenagers murdered a teenage girl.

My friend's son's gf got a life sentence. Not sure if it was ever changed later. He did visit her (the prison was in San Diego and he lived in the Bay Area, so not frequently), but eventually moved on.

The whole thing was extremely hard on everybody. On him, on his mother, on everybody. He was called to testify, too.

But eventually he found a Romanian girlfriend who was not in prison. She was not too available, either, due to the LD nature of the relationship, but I think they have a plan to live together in London going to graduate school there. Or something like that - at any rate, way better than a life sentence...