Lockerbie victim’s mom happy to see ‘monster’ Gadhafi gone

Combined news services

Combined news services

For decades, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was seen as an international villain, but for Susan Cohen, he was a personal enemy, one she read up on daily for more than 20 years.

Her 20-year-old daughter, Theo Cohen, was one of the 270 people — many of them New York and New Jersey residents — killed when Pam Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, allegedly at Gadhafi’s behest.

She said this was the happiest day of her life since then.

“This was sort of like Dracula: Is Dracula really dead?” said Cohen, formerly of Port Jervis. “It’s great now that we know. I didn’t want him to go to a trial. When you have a tyrant, a monster like him, we’re all better off with him dead. Now there can be no illusion of him ever returning to power.”

Theo, a graduate of Port Jervis High School, was a student at Syracuse University at the time of her death. She was on her way back from studying at the Royal Academy in England as part of her university’s drama program.

Theo’s parents, Susan and Dan Cohen, moved from Port Jervis to Cape May Courthouse, N.J., partly to escape the memories that lingered in the hometown where Theo grew up.