AUSTIN, Texas _ Phil and Jill Henderson feared something was wrong when they woke up in the middle of the night to find a new voicemail from the U.S. Embassy in Greece.
"Bakari must have lost his passport," Phil Henderson remembers thinking.
"Or somebody found his wallet," Jill Henderson insisted.
But in the wee hours of July 7, the couple was scared enough that before returning the call, they clasped hands and begged God for their son to be safe.
"I just prayed that everything was going to be OK," Phil Henderson said. "That he was out of harm's way. Protected."
But a world away, the voice on the other end of the line told them their 22-year-old son, an honor student who grew up in Austin and graduated from Hyde Park Baptist High School, was dead.
Then came the ghastly details _ that Bakari Henderson had been killed, beaten to death by a gang of young men on a street in a popular entertainment district of the Greek island of Zakynthos.
Nearly four months later, at their home in Austin's Northwest Hills, the couple struggle to comprehend how their son fell victim to a violent mob, a crime that shocked the world and raised questions about why an American tourist would be attacked.
They are also confronting fears that justice may be elusive in a country with what some consider a lax approach to incarceration. The Hendersons say they can't help but wonder how seriously authorities will treat the case after releasing two of the nine suspects on $5,700 bail each, which allowed them to return to their native Serbia.
What little they know about what happened they have pieced together through news reports and information presented by U.S. officials in Greece. Henderson, a budding entrepreneur with a lifelong adventurous streak, took a photograph with a woman inside a bar _ an action authorities think offended the group of nine suspected attackers.
In the absence of any further explanation, the Hendersons, who recently granted a series of interviews to the Austin American-Statesman, think it is possible their son was attacked because he was an American and, maybe, because he was black.
Perhaps the most compelling and disturbing evidence in the case is a clear, but graphic, black-and-white video played around the globe. It shows Henderson in full flight, being tackled so he falls against a parked car and getting beaten and kicked repeatedly as he tries to stand. About 20 seconds after the violence erupted, the men leave Henderson collapsed on the street with fatal head injuries. Someone performs CPR.
Phil Henderson has watched the video frame-by-frame _ "I wanted to know how they took my son's life," he said _ but Jill Henderson can't bring herself to see his final moments.
As painful as it is knowing that their son's last minutes were shared online for all the world to see, the couple also hope that the footage is helpful to prosecutors in building a case against the attackers.
"It's kind of comforting to know there is a video, so people can't say, 'Oh I wasn't there,'" Jill Henderson said.
The suspects charged with intentional homicide in Bakari Henderson's death include seven Serbians and two workers from the bar, according to published reports. One of them has told Greek media that he was attempting to break up the attack.
With a bundle of newly amassed case files and attorneys they have hired in the United States and Greece to guide them, the Hendersons say they will push for Greek prosecutors to vigorously pursue the case and called upon U.S. officials to do all they can to help ensure a reasonable resolution.
Only when they see justice, they say, will they begin to feel as though they can properly grieve the loss of their son and begin a new life without him.
